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THE UNIVERSITY 


OF ILLINOIS 


LIBRARY 
639. 
Osib 


MM ERG 
READING 


ROOM 


14 Dec 


2 


)7 


~ Bteshers 


Why Thi 


As a beginner in the fi 
whelmed with the mystery o 
psychology at college—lots 
logical phraseology of professi 
a fear that theirs was a mag 


But lo! the curtain rais 
tery went. Advertising prov 
than the successful managem 


And so, as I saw those f 
work in publicity, I marked t 
fled most, I pigeon-holed. M 
recorded in the A-B-C of 
the terms of the twenty ever 
advertised. 


Thus, this book seeks t 
ing—more completely, more 
than ever sketched before. 
mistic hope that it accomplis 
never be. 


, 


Return this book on or before the _ 
Latest Date stamped below. 


Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books 

are reasons for disciplinary action and may 

result in dismissal from the University. 
University of Illinois Library 


ken 
ray 


6 1945 


L161— O-1096 


Alex. F. Osborn 


Dedicated to T. S. B. 


343613 


OF ILLINOIS 


LIBRARY 
639 
Oslb 


OM MERCE 
ROOM 


- 


Pf ma 
es, Wa os 
r Bg dd ' 
My i, 


Why This Book Is 


As a beginner in the fields of advertising, I felt over- 
whelmed with the mystery of it all. Of course, I had had 
psychology at college—lots of it. And yet, the psycho- 
logical phraseology of professional advertisers scared me with 
a fear that theirs was a magical art. 


‘But lo! the curtain raised. As experience came, mys- 
tery went. Advertising proved not a whit more mysterious 


_ than the successful management of a football team. 


And so, as I saw those facts at the threshold of a life- 
work in publicity, | marked them. The mysteries that baf- 
fled most, I pigeon-holed. Many of them you will find in here 
—recorded in the A-B-C of common sense—interpreted in 
the terms of the twenty every-day businesses which I have 
advertised. 


Thus, this book seeks to sketch a survey of advertis- 
ing—more completely, more simply and of broader scope 
than ever sketched before. And, if it were not for an opti- 
mistic hope that it accomplishes that aim, this book would 
never be. . 


Alex. F. Osborn | 


Dedicated to T. S. B. 


is 


Co 


Ge 


616 
| iD 


oe 
a 


CHAPTER 


1 
IT. 
BOE: 
IV. 
V. 
VI. 


Nauk i 
VIII. 


Dee 
X. 


XI. 
Ne 


LIT 
XIV. 
XV. 


XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX 
pO & 
XXII. 
XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 
XXV. 
XXVI. 
XXVII. 
XXVIII. 
XXIX. 
XOX. 
XXXI. 
XXXII. 


Table of Contents 


PaGE 
Does Advertising Benefit the Public? 7 
What Are the Two Divisions of Advertising? 9 
What Does a Trade-Mark Accomplish? IO 
Who Should Learn About Advertising? na 
How to Advertise Something Unknown and Unwaaeel 13 
To Find the Appeal of Something ‘Unknown and 
Unwanted”. 14 
How to Advertise Sate nine <THall Knowl and 
Half-Wanted” 15 
To Find the Appeal of the cc FAIS Kennan and Half. 
Wanted” 16 
How to Advertise Somer hiner Umeabaene by- Brande 17 
How to Find the Appeal of Pomeee ‘Unknown- 
by-Brand”’ 18 
What Diction Best eank Appeal to ie Pyosneee 19 
Is “You” the Best Word in an Advertiser's Vocabu- 
lary? 21 
What is the Best ae to Atte the Eye? 22 
How Does Mind-Display Do Its Work? : 24 
Can Ads Be Made Effective ee Fusion with 
News? 26 
How Does Size Aid Die 28 
What Determines Size of Ad? 30 
How Does Illustration Help Display? 32 
A Few Typographical Rudiments 35 
What Are “Layouts” and “Dummies”? nF 
A Few Printing Processes 39 
What Kind of Engravings Are There? 40 
A Few Points About Half-Tones Al 
First Analysis by Retail Advertiser 43 
Further Preliminary Retail Analysis 44 
How Conditions Decide Details for Retailer 46 
Is Price Necessary in Retail Advertising? 47 
Should Retail “Copy” Scatter or Concentrated 48 
How Much Should a Retailer Spend? 49 
Increased Retail Results at Decreased Cost 50 
Purpose and Position of Retail Ads SI 
Retail Advertising by Other Than Newspapers 53 


4 


XXXITT. 
XXXIV. 
XXXYV, 
XXXVI. 
XXXVII. 
XXXVITI. 
XXXIX. 
XL. 

XLI. 


XLII. 
XLII. 
XLIV. 
XLV. 
XLVI. 
LVI, 
XLVIII. 
XLIX. 
lis 

bale 

LIT. 
LAT: 
LIV. 
LV. 
LVI 
LVII. 
LVIII. 
LIX. 
LEX: 
CXI. 
LXII. 
Lex LLP, 
LXIV. 
LXV. 
LXVI. 
LXVII. 
LXVIII. 
LEXIX. 
LXX. 
LXXI. 
LXXII. 
LXXITI. 
LXXIV. 
LXXV. 


Why the Retailer Chooses Newspapers 
Store Conditions Help Decide Ad Questions 
Manufacturers’ Aid in Retail Advertising 


Department Stores As Individual Institutions 


How Big Stores Select Goods 

The Ad Man and the Store’s Buyers 
Why Do Stores Hold Sales? 

Are Some Things Un-Advertisable? 


Are Some Seeming Unadvertisable ate Adved 


tisable? 
What Distributive Method to tehoede 
Through-Dealer Way Versus Direct-by-Mail 
Direct-by-Mail Advertising Problems 
What About Prospect’s Ability to Buy? 
Where Do the Best Prospects Live? 
How Analysis Decides Methods 
Value of Analysis of Conditions 
Analysis as to How and When 
Analysis and Mail-Order 
How About Mail-Order Method? 
Can You Sell Both Consumer and Dealer? 
Direct-Through-Agents Distribution 
Producer, Jobber, Dealer Distribution 
Distribution Through Exclusive Agencies 
General Retail Distribution 
Advertising and Dealer Dieimbation! 
How To Get Distribution 
Step- by-Step Distribution 
The Salesman Who Knows Ad vertisnet 
Sales Advertising Co-Operation 
How Advertising Helps, Help Salesmen 
Advertising Prevents Price Suicide 
Details of a General Campaign 
Advertising to Win the Dealer 
The Dealer’s Store as a Medium 
Chain Stores’ Effect on Advertising 
How to Key Advertising Results 
Sampling’s Part in a Campaign 
Other Functions of Advertising Department 
How to Decide as to Media 
Dealer Co-Operation and Media Selections 
Message Helps Decide Medium 
Resources Help Decide Media 
Extent of Market Decides Media 


LXXVI. 
LXXVII. 
LXXVIIL. 
EX XTX. 
XX 
UXT 
-LXXXII. 
LXXXIII. 
LXXXIV. 
LXXXV. 
LXxRVE 
LXXXVII. 


LXXXVIII. 


LXXXIX. 
LXXXX. 


The Magazine as a Medium II5 
Class and Trade Publications 117 
The Street-Car Card as a Medium 118 
Outdoor Advertising and Signs 120 
The Advertising Novelty as a Medium 122 
How Well Do Newspapers Cover the Connecter 123 
Why Newspapers Cost Least 124 
Newspaper Timeliness and Chackipoahiiey 126 
Arguments vs. Newspapers as Media 127 
Why the Newspaper is Most Businesslike 128 
Newspaper’s Lack of ‘‘Atmosphere”’ Immaterial 129 
The Dealer’s Attitude Towards Newspaper Adver- 
tising 131 
How Territorial Diinitatione: Regenmede News 
papers 132 
Determining the Fopaule of Balke Sihecke 133 
Successful Advertising Demands Truth: 134 


THE A-B-C OF ADVERTISING ANALYSIS 


(See Chapters V to X Inclusive) 


GENERAL ANALYSIS OF PRODUCT AND PROSPECT 


(Non-advertisable articles, and those advertisable only on price not included ) 


If the Article Itself 


Class of Product | be “Unknown and Known and Half is “Unknown : as 
Unwanted” Wanted’’ to Brand’”’ 
ON LO ge CLASS A CLASS B CLASS C 


(1) Attention: 


Suggest Novelty Show Necessity 


If the Article be ‘“‘Half | If it be Needed, But 


Emphasize Name 


(2) Desire: Describe Virtues Explain Details Repeat Suggestion 
een Offer Further Prove Its Secure a Trrial Use 
(3) Action: Information Profitability First 
HOW TO APPEAL 
TO PROSPECT’S CLASS A CLASS B CLASS C 
SUSCEPTIBILITIES 
: ‘5 Show How to Show How to Show it Costs 
(r) Business: Make Money Save Money No More 


Invite to ‘Be One 


(2) Pleasure: of Firee’® 


(3) Weakness: 


New Toy 
IN APPLYING ABOVE, 
WHAT TO USE BY CLASS A 
WAY OF 
a Reason-—Why, With 
Copy: Thorough Arguments 
ay kin: Closely Read—Such 


as Newspapers 


Give it Flavor of 


Suggest Folly of 
Self-denial 


Argue They’Il 


“Get it Eventually’’ 


CLASS B 


Reason—Why, Com- 
bined With Display 


Read—Such as News- 


papers or Magazines 


Intimate That ‘‘Its 
Fun to Try it”’ 


Inquire 
““‘Why Not Change?” 


— 


‘CLASS C 
Publicity—With 
Display Paramount 


Seen— Newspapers or 
Other Mediums 


CHAPTER? I: 


Does Advertising Benefit the Public? 


| Advertising has the center of the commercial stage today. 
Why? Why does this phase of business fascinate so? Is it be- 
cause of its magnitude? It represents a yearly expenditure of over 
$400,000,000. In fact, some experts estimate $1,000,000,000 per year. 
However, there must be some other appeal than mere bigness. What 
is it? Maybe it is mystery, for the art of advertising is elusive. That 
is what impels interest. 

What is advertising? 

What does it matter? We do not care whether advertising can 
best be defined as “The art of creating a new want,” as one authori- 
ty would have it, or whether its definition is both more specific and 
more extensive than that. For instance, a thing that is keenly 
wanted, such as bread, can nevertheless be advertised. Yet, there 
is no “creation of a new want” with such a commodity—nor with 
flour. Therefore, to define advertising, you have to cover more 
than the creation of new wants. And, too, although you may call 
it art, modern advertising is business from start to finish. It is 
printed salesmanship, and salesmanship is the business of disposing 
of goods at a profit. 

Advertising costs money. Its only justification is that it makes 
money. Advertising, for most advertisers, is profitable. For others, 
it is ruinous. Therefore, the big search is to find why one method 
will win, while another will lose. Always, the test is in the profit— 
that is: Sales with a net margin in favor of the advertiser. That is 
the alpha and omega of advertising. 

Yet, even though advertising will bring the advertiser more 
profit, it may likewise cause lower prices, and thus benefit the peo- 
ple. That result will more than justify advertising from the stand- 
point of economic desirability. 

Advertising is the child of modern conditions. Competition, 
the much-sought panacea for economic ills is, itself, the cause, of ad- 
vertising’s magnitude today. Formerly, a few drummers would dis- 
pose of the manufacturer’s output. Formerly, a favorable word-of- 
mouth activity would give the local merchant all the business he 
could take care of ‘“‘without hiring extra clerks.”’ But the mail-order 
business, for instance, comes along, and the giant “catalog” houses 
begin to undersell the local dealer. He finds it hard to “compete”— 
simply because he has never known competition. He has not been 


7 


doing enough business in proportion to his rent and other fixed ex- 
penses. For, those charges taxed his business to about the same 
degree, whether he sold $100 or $1000 worth a month. 


So the local merchant begins to advertise in his home newspa- 
per. And his competitor advertises. Competition makes them both 
buy more closely: Competition makes them both fight for more 
business. And, getting more business, they are better able to com- 
pete—not only with each other, but with these outside businesses 
which so aggressively seek to take the trade away from home. And 
so, the local merchant can now compete, because, through advertis- 
ing, he can now sell enough more merchandise, so that his cost of 
doing business goes down from 50% or thereabouts, to where today 
he averages, the country over, less than 30%. 


Likewise, the manufacturer grasps the golden opportunity that 
judicious advertising offers. For instance, the plant that has been 
doing a business of $100,000 per year, used to have 20 drummers 
running about the country to sell that output. These 20 salesmen 
cost approximately $50,000 per year, and they have merely scratched 
the surface of the potential market. At last, the manufacturer de- 
cides to take a chance. He lets 10 of the salesmen go, and spends 
$15,000 on newspaper advertising. His volume of business is even 
bigger. Thus, instead of $50,000, it costs him only $40,000 to dispose 
of his product, and the public benefits. 


When the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake people came out in the 
newspapers with their announcement that in the future, every pack- 
age was to be covered with a WAXTITE envelope, some econo- 
mists said: “Phew—how can they so increase the cost of their goods 
and not raise the price?” The answer is easy—so big has their vol- 
ume of business become as a result of advertising (according to their 
own statement) that they have been able not only to lower the price 
from 15c to 10c, but also they have been able to give a larger pack- 
age, and on top of that furnish WAXTITE envelopes on all boxes. 
That is how advertising sometimes increases the purchasing power 
of the average consumer’s dollar. 


The public benefits for two reasons: first, the retail merchant 
who handles this manufacturer’s output is willing to sell it with 
less margin in it for him, than he would require of an unadvertised 
article. ‘The reason he is willing to sacrifice part of his gross profit 
in this way, is that he has to spend less effort in order to sell the 
kind for which a demand had been created through advertising in 
his home newspaper. The other reason why this change in the 
manufacturers sales plan benefits the public is that the manufac- 
turer has to be more careful. He has to be sure that his goods are 
up to a high standard, because he knows that his advertised goods 
are subject to a severer inspection by the ultimate purchaser, than 
if he had published no claims for his article. 

Even further, it often happens that through decreased selling 
expense, the manufacturer can lower his price if he wants to. And, 
as a rule, he does want to lower his price so as to lift his volume of 
business to the highest possible point, and thus secure the maximum 
net revenue from the sale of his output. 


8 


CHAPTER II. 


What Are the Two Divisions of Advertising ? 


In entering upon an advertising campaign, there is one vital 
point which should always be decided at the start., That question 
is as to whether the campaign should be of Publicity or Action-Ad- 
vertising. The nature of the product will determine which. It is 
too bad that there are these two divisions in the subject of adver- 
tising, but they exist and they should be held clearly in mind as dis- 
tinctive divisions. Publicity, as usually considered, is atmospheric. 
It simply seeks the popularization of a name, a slogan, a trade-mark, 
or some one thing. By publicity the advertiser hopes, through sug- 
gestion, to put his product into the sub-conscious mind of the con- 
‘sumer. Publicity does. not seek any direct result. It is content to 
build up prestige—gradually, insidiously and almost regardless of 
expense. | 

Action-Advertising is absolutely distinct from this. It seeks 
incidentally to establish a favorable flavor for the thing advertised, 
but above all, it works hard to get action—immediate action in the 
form of purchase. Either it seeks to get the consumer to send for 
more information, as a step toward the ultimate purchase of the ar- 
ticle advertised or, if possible, as in most newspaper advertising, it 
aims to get the consumer to go and buy the thing without further 
ado. 

Publicity is the kind of advertising which is most effective in 
newspapers, although you see some of it on the bill-boards, on the 
electric signs, in the street cars and other places where the message 
is read at a glance. Always, it is just suggestion, and usually with 
the name of the article as the keynote of the message. Above all, 
it attracts the eye. Outside of that, it merely hints at some favor- 
able reason why you should buy. 

Action-Advertising, on the other hand, has got to do a much 
more thorough job than that. It has to attract the eye, of course, 
first of all. Secondly, it has to clinch the interest. Thirdly, it must 
move the judgment, and finally, it must open the purse of the 
reader. Argument, plus all the lure of eye-attraction—that is the 
kind of mind-persuasion that “reason-why” “copy” is made of. 


Action-Advertising must be where it will be read, because its 
message has to impel action. Therefore it must contain more per- 
suasion than any such mere suggestion could. Usually Action-Ad- 
vertising cannot be read on the run. And so, while the low cost of 
newspaper-space makes the newspaper the best medium for mere 
Publicity, it is also true that for Action-Advertising, the newspaper 
is most essential. 

As will be explained later, analysis of product and prospect 
should determine whether Action-Advertising, (with “reason-why” 
“copy’) should be used, or whether Publicity, (with merely sugges- 
tive copy) would be better. It is quite often true that an article may 
need the former kind at first, whereas later, it can be successfully 
promoted through non-persuasive—simply suggestive—publicity. 


9 


But if either one would work equally well, the Action-Advertising, 
such as is possible in the newspaper, is preferable, for frequently, in 
such cases, tomorrow’s sales pay for today’s advertising. 


CHAPTER III. 


What Does a Trade- Mark Accomplish? 


Particularly in Publicity, the keystone of any campaign is the 
trade-mark. This may be a coined name like “Uneeda,” or it may 
be an existing name like “Ford,” whose distinctive design js well- 
known to the readers of 5000 newspapers. Especially in the national 
publicity of a manufacturer, a trade-mark is indispensable, for the 
reason that the value of such advertising is not the sum of the sep- 
arate values of each ad. There is a bigger value which piles up witn 
continuity. This is called “cumulative” value. It. increases geo- 
metrically with repetition. 

The arguments upon arguments which the advertiser builds up 
in favor of his goods, will fall short of their full efficiency unless 
they be made to mean a particular brand of the kind of goods that 
are being described. What good would it do the Fels Naptha Soap 
people, simply to advertise the virtues of a Naptha soap in so many 
newspapers and so often? They have got to advertise “Fels” Nap- 
tha Soap. There must be a peg on which to hang the garments of 
superiority which advertising weaves in favor of the particular artt- 
cle. In the case of Fels Naptha Soap, it is the combination name pre- 
sented in a way that almost any newspaper reader can picture in 
his mind’s eye. In the case of a cleaning powder, it is “Dutch 
Cleanser,” (if the advertiser be Cudahy & Co.) or it is “Gold Dust” 
(if the advertiser be Fairbanks Company). 

Trade-marks like these sometimes become parts:of our vocabu- 
lary. Who would think Kodak was a coined name owned by the 
Eastman Company? When such trade-marks do become by-words, 
they are worth fabulous sums. For instance, it is said that if Coca 
Cola were to be offered for sale, today, that name of eight letters 
would bring over $4,000,000—over half a million per letter. Think 
how much of a by-word “Shredded Wheat’ has been made through 
newspaper advertising, backed by magazine publicity, and you will 
see why anyone who starts off'on National advertising without a 
trade-mark which is distinctive, descriptive, easy to say, easy to rer 
member, and of pleasant suggestion, is very apt to fall short of max- 
imum efficiency in his advertising. “Wrigley,” which you see in 
your newspaper almost every day, in connection with chewing gum, 
is worth almost as many millions as there are letters in the name— 
at least so the Federal Courts have decided. 

The trade-mark that is all these things and is also a coined 
word is best because it is least apt to be stolen. Trade-mark regis- 
tration merely establishes a prior right in ownership of the trade- 
mark, but this right is always open to question. Moreover, a des- 


10 


criptive or personal name cannot be registered except as to its spe- 
cial design or some other exclusive peculiarity. 

It follows, then, that continuity is a prime essential of adver- 
tising. It is like rolling a barrel up a hill. If you quit, now and 
then, and let the barrel fall back to the bottom, you will make no 
progress. No matter how many hours you might spend in total on 
the task of pushing that barrel up the hill, if you did not keep at it, 
you will ultimately be just where you started. So it is with publicity. — 
You may advertise like wildfire day in and day out for a month, and 
then if you drop it for a year, you will have to begin all over again, 
for, in the meantime, the public will have forgotten. As a result, 
your article will be virtually as unknown as if you had never made 
that initial advertising expenditure. 

Another inevitable A-B-C of advertising is the necessity to 
have on hand that which you advertise. If you are a manufacturer, 
and advertise your goods in a national way, you must make sure 
that, if Mrs. Jones of Jonesville goes to the corner store and asks 
for that which—through your newspaper advertising, for instance— 
you have made her want, she will find it on sale. Otherwise, she 
will take something “just as good” and your effort will have come 
to naught. Likewise, if you are a retailer and you advertise in your 
newspaper that you have kitchen chairs for 34 cents, you must make 
sure that you have those kitchen chairs on hand, when the people 
come in for them the next day. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Who Should Learn About Advertising ? 


So much for some of the general rudiments of advertising. How 
should a person study it in its many details? A general knowledge 
of the subject, in its many phases—that is the best goal to strive for. 
Every article offers its own specific problems. There can be no set 
of rules to follow. The only way to increase advertising ability, is 
to gain a general survey of the field of advertising. Then, knowing 
its many different phases, you will have a “hunch” what to do, and, 
above all, you will have a definite idea what not to do. You can 
combine that instinct with your experience in regard to the specific 
thing to be advertised. Thus, you ought to be able to make each 
advertising dollar bring in greater returns than it otherwise would. 

Often, a retail advertiser, (or a retail merchant who should ad- 
vertise) feels impatient about listening to a discussion of “national” 
advertising problems. But, the fact is that that retail merchant can 
learn a great deal that will help him in his own particular problems, 
if he learns the cardinal points in connection with the advertising of 
the manufacturers whose goods he sells, especially if that manufac- 
turer is wise enough to localize his advertising through the newspa- 
pers. Certainly, the jobber or manufacturer should know what the 
dealer, on whom he depends for his distribution, has to face by way 


11 


of advertising problems. In other words, the dealer should know 
something about national advertising problems, and the manufac- 
turer should know something about retail advertising. Even if he 
is in the mail-order business, and defies the retail dealer, he never- 
theless will find it of advantage to know something about retail ad- 
vertising, just as it is wise for a general to get a good line as possi- 
ble on the activities of the “other fellows.” . 

How about the person who is not in a business where he either 
advertises or should advertise—for instance, that young man or 
woman who wishes to study advertising as a possible life-work? If 
you are of that class, a comprehensive treatment of the subject 
ought to be of the utmost benefit, for then you surely ought to have 
a general knowledge of all kinds of advertising. If you know its 
many phases, you will be better able to choose which particular 
branch you care to pursue. Moreover, after you start, even though 
you specialize in a particular department, you will find that it helps 
a great deal to understand the other phases of the subject. 

However, do not deceive yourself that a study of advertising, 
no matter how thorough, will make a good advertiser of any Tom, 
Dick or Harry. Basically, you must possess other factors. For in- 
stance, if you are devoid of selling instinct, don’t try to enter adver- 
tising. No matter how you worked, you would never make an ad- 
vertising expert. On the other hand, anyone of fair intelligence, 
who has had a reasonable amount of education, and possesses at 
least some of that instinctive ability to sell, ought to be able to find 
a living in the advertising field, if he will study the subject thor- 
oughly. Of course, real ability, however, will come only when wide 
experience has crystalized that fundamental information. 

Just to work at advertising is almost reward enough. No other 
field furnishes such fascination. But you have to be willing to pay 
the price of continuous alertness, for it necessitates an eternal qui 
vive. There are no rules or laws that you can apply, as in the 
sciences. Every problem requires a different solution. Therefore, 
to win in this field, you must develop a catch-as-catch-can versatility 
which can interpret each new case in the light of: (1) Knowledge of 
fundamental general rules; (2) Knowledge pertaining to object to 
be advertised; (3) Knowledge of the mental processes of mankind. 
This last is sometimes called “psychology.” 

Yes, there is fun, and ever-new interest in advertising, but 
there are other rewards, too. For instance, there is the feeling that 
you are participating in a movement that helps uplift civilization, 
for many an improvement in the world’s habits has been the result 
of inventions, many of them nurtured by newspaper advertising, and 
other kinds of publicity. Then, too, it is pleasant for the advertiser 
to know that his is a part of a productive industry which increases 
the profit for the seller, and decreases the cost to the buyer, i. e. 
the public. 

From a remunerative standpoint, there is a worth-while oppor- 
tunity for an advertising specialist in practically every store and fac- 
tory in the country. In almost every case, the services of a skillful 
advertising man will warrant a salary for him that ought to be sec- 
ond to that of the general manager, and, possibly, the head of the 


12 


’ 


sales department. Moreover, there are comparatively minor places 
in the advertising field which will pay much more than the general 
manager of the average manufacturing plant can command. Yes— 
there are some opportunities in the advertising field which offer 
$25,000 per year and higher. 

The purpose of this course, then, will be to consider in a co- 
herent, logical manner, the many detailed phases of the subject of 
advertising. The aim shall be to give the reader a general survey 
of the entire field. Ina way, this will be a digest of the best prin- 
ciples laid down by the best authorities. 

The treatment of the subject will be business-like from start 
to finish, and it will not be too academic. Little will be said ot 
“Psychology,” (which has become so hackneyed in connection with 
advertising, that it is erroneously regarded, by some, as a synonym 
for the subject in general). But the real meat of psychology, name- 
ly, the common-sense analysis of mind-processes, will be thoroughly 
covered in an every-day way, and in its naked essentials—all without 
effort to becloud that important phase of the study with any mys- 
terious atmosphere. 


Crit Rave 


How to Advertise Something Unknown 
and Unwanted. 


Whether a thing be of local or national demand—whether it 
be advertised by retailer or manufacturer—it can be looked at in 
certain basic aspects which will largely determine as to how it 
ought to be presented—as to what features in it are worth talking 
about, as to what qualities of the prospect can be appealed to—and 
as to what medium can be used as an avenue through which to 
carry those features of the product, or merchandise, to those quali- 
ties in the prospect in a way that will insure fair probability of suc- 
cess. 

So, let us see if we can classify things to be advertised. Can 
we say article No. 1 can be successfully advertised by “A” method, 
No. 2 by “B” method, and No. 3 by “C” method, while No. 4, as a 
result of its very nature, cannot be advertised at all? 

Let us try. In the first place, there are many things which 
apparently cannot be advertised except on price basis. Particularly 
is that true in retail advertising. In such effort, the aim, method, 
and result is to undersell the other fellow. Such advertising rep- 
resents great bulk. It is the simplest form. That class is omitted 
from this general analysis of product and prospect. 

Now suppose you have to advertise something entirely new. 
Before knowing what to say, how to say it, whether to illustrate it, 
or where to place your “copy,” you must know many things such 
as can be discovered only by analysis of the product to be sold, and 


(N. B.—See Chart on page 6 in re Chapiers V to X.) 
13 


of the prospect to whom you hope to sell. For such analysis, the 
following chart is suggested: 

Of course, this will not decide all vital questions in regard to 
how, when, and where you should advertise. But, with the excep- 
tion-of the ‘class of goods which must rely on cut-price for popular- 
ity and which therefore must be advertised in the papers—perhaps 
these three “pigeon-holes,” A, B, C, may include almost anything 
you might have to present to the public through publicity. 

For instance, take the stock of the Federal Baseball League. 
Probably the first temptation of any advertiser would be to use 
painted bulletin boards, which, in nice “June” colors, might inten- 
sify the call of the ball park. But, if you ask some questions of 
such stock: “How familiar is it? How keen is the demand for it?” 
-—you would have to answer to yourself: “This is an investment 
proposition. Such is not familiar to the average citizen. It is a 
new thing. Moreover, it is not actively wanted.” 

You have got to make it known—and wanted. To do that you 
have got to put your story where it can be read thoroughly—name- 
ly, in the newspaper. 

In other words, you could see at a glance that this baseball 
stock would fall under the class of the “Unknown-Unwanted.” 
Knowing that, you will then have to pick your prospective investor 
to pieces. You would ask what would be most likely to get his at- 
tention? Probably “novelty,’ would be the answer. Therefore, 
“FIRE THE UMPIRE IF YOU WANT TO” would be a charac- 
teristic headline for one of your ads. It would suggest the novelty 
of the investment. Moreover, no matter how slight his interest 
might be, that kind of an appeal would put the idea into the fan’s 
mind that this stock would give him a part in the management of 
the team. | 


CHAPTER VI 


To Find the Appeal of Something “Unknown 
and Unwanted’’. 


Thus, if the thing were unknown and unwanted, being an 
article under Class “A,” it could win the prospect’s attention through 
novelty. For instance, if it were a share of Federal League Base- 
ball stock, it could harpoon with a head-line such as “FIRE THE 
UMPIRE IF YOU WANT TO.” 

Then, how would you accomplish the next step—create desire? 
Your proposition of itself ought to make him want a share or so— 
that is if he knew something about it. So, if the medium used is 
fitted for such, like the newspaper—description is the next essen- 
tial. But, in addition to that, you would be up against the task of 
making Mr. Fan seek to get more information—or, in other words, 
to allow you to talk to him more PoeSrInEy ely? more persuasively, 
and possibly, personally. 


14 


There are three big avenues to influence people’s decisions as 
to whether or not to purchase. These are business, pleasure, and 
weakness. Of these, business-instinct is a. considerable element. 
You would appeal to your man on that ground, by showing how 
this Federal League stock ought to pay big dividends. Also, you 
might awaken his sense of pleasure in favor of your proposition, by 
proving that it would be good fun to be “among the first,” for, in 
the end, the possible buyer might like to hear himself remarking 
with pride: “I got a slice of the new Federal League Baseball stock 
—did you buy any?” Also, you could appeal to his human weak- 
ness, by giving the stock the atmosphere of a toy—something new 
which would tickle the kid-side of the grown-up fan. 

So, when your analysis of product and prospect has taught you 
that much about what your task is in order successfully to advertise 
this baseball stock, your problem simmers down to a choice of 
whether you should spend your money on newspaper, billboard, 
street-car space, or how. Of course, personal work would be best, 
but it would be so expensive. Circular letters might be worth while, 
but their cost would be $20 or $30 per thousand of prospects 
reached, whereas the same sized space in the newspaper would be 
40c or 50c per thousand of people to whom the message would be 
handed. 

But, whatever the medium chosen, you know from the above 
analysis that your advertising has got to be of the “reason-why” 
variety—that it must be descriptive and persuasive, and that thor- 
oughness of treatment is necessary. 

Therefore, any medium that is read-on-the-run is out of the 
question. Your advertisement must be put where the reader not only 
merely sees but also looks, and reads. Therefore, in “A,” in the class 
of the “Unknown-Unwanted,” it is necessary to use the newspaper 
above all, with the magazine or some other medium which is closely 
read, as reinforcement of such, if needed. Unless you do put your 
advertising where it can both suggest, and actually persuade, then 
you cannot hope to make known the unknown, and to make wanted 
that which is unwanted—unwanted both as to the specific brand, 
and also as to the general class of which it is a part. 


CHAPTER VII 


How to Advertise Something ‘“Half- Known 
and Half-Wanted’’. 


Baseball stock goes into the pigeon-hole of the ‘“Unknown- 
Unwanted.’ So does Beaver Board, Sanatogen, Encyclopedia Brit- 
annica and many others, for such must not only make known their 
names, but also must establish the identity of the species to which 
they belong. They must prove whether they be fish, fowl or beast, 
and then must prove why the possible purchaser ought to have some- 


15 


thing of that species. Finally, they must prove why the public 
should prefer their particular brand above all other possible brands 
of the same type—that is, unless they monopolize their field. 

Now we come to a class that does not need such extensive, nor 
intensive, pioneer work: Let us call this class the “Half-Known, 
Half-Wanted.” For example, let us take a new automatic telephone. 
This is operated without operators. You turn a dial and get your 
number yourself. You have no one to swear at. You can be mor- 
ally certain whether the party sought is really busy or not. It is 
different in many, many ways—but after all, it is a telephone, and, 
in that fact, is of fair familiarity. As to its demand—well, it’s kind 
of “half-wanted.’ 2 

“You see, I subscribe to a manual phone system now, and to 
put in the automatic phone also, would require the spending of more 
money than I really have to—and in a way might be an unjustifiable 
duplication.” Something like that is the average attitude at first. 

Thus, you would find that this product, on analysis, would 
gravitate under the head of the “Half-Known” and “Half-Wanted.” 
It would be but semi-familiar and only passively desired, both as to 
the specific thing itself, and also as to the class of goods of which 
it is a part. To win the prospect’s attention, therefore, your appeal 
should be to prove it a necessity. You must explain a great deal. 
You might, for instance, tell how it works. You might show why it 
works better than other things which it resembles, and against 
which it competes. Only thus can you create desire. ‘lo start the 
prospect’s action, you could prove the profitability of your article. 
You have got to make him feel he’d better have it after all. 

Of the major human incentives, “business” is usually the best 
one to which.to appeal when advertising anything “Half-Known 
and Half-Wanted.” The business instinct could be hit in the case 
of the automatic phone, for instance, by showing that to contract 
for this service would mean the saving of money. You might sug- 
gest to your prospective subscriber that he would lose business if he 
did not have an automatic in his store. Conversely, you could tickle 
his sense of pleasure by getting him to feel, “Well, what’s the use of 
my denying myself?” The next thing would be to coddle his in- 
herent weakness to the end that he would surrender, feeling: “Well, 
T'll get it eventually. I guess I might as well sign up for one now.” 


CHAPTER VILI. 


To Find the Appeals of the “‘Half- Known 
and Half-Wanted’’. 


On the basis of an analysis of this second class of the “Half- 
Known and Half-Wanted,’ you can tell what features of the com- 
modity to emphasize, what appeals to use in order to bring about 
the necessary steps of (1) attention, (2) desire, and (3) action. You 


16 


can also readily see what features of the prospect's make-up 4re 
easiest of approach. Thus, in advertising something that falls under 
this class, you would be inevitably brought to the fact that although 
your copy must have display value to awaken a dormant or potential 
interest, it must also be persuasive with real reasons—designed to 
create desire. Therefore, you must use a medium that is more than 
merely glanced at, for the mere flaunting of a name or a trade-mark 
would not create desire for the “Half-Known and Half-Wanted.” So, 
necessarily, you would place this kind of advertising in publications 
which are read—surely the newspapers, and possibly the magazines 
if you were a national advertiser, with a wide enough distribution 
and with sufficient funds to use these less action-ful mediums in ad- 
dition to the newspapers. 

The kind of things which come under this class are numerous. 
Automobile advertising, for instance, is one of the most prominent. 
This variety usually makes the purchaser spend money, which he, 
otherwise, would probably not spend, for the motor car is seldom a 
necessity. To that extent, this class is the same as the class of the 
“Totally-Unknown” and is different from the class where the kind 
is really known and wanted, even though the specific commodity is 
“Unknown as to Brand.” The main difference between the “Un- 
known-Unwanted” and the “Half-Known and Half-Wanted” type, is 
that in the latter class, similar commodities are already half known 
to the prospective buyer. Therefore, you do not need as much des- 
cription. 

Yet, to make people buy the “Half-Known and Half-Wanted” 
commodity you must not only make them want the commodity in 
general—you must also make them want your specific brand. There- 
fore, you must first establish a desire for something of the same kind 
as the thing which you advertise. But, since the desire is half-created 
to begin with, your main task is to make the specific thing which 
you advertise, preferred above all others in this class. This can be 
done through the newspaper. 

Quite often a commodity, such as an automatic telephone or an 
automobile or a vacuum cleaner or a remedy, may at first, belong in 
the class of the “Unknown-Unwanted.” As such it may necessitate 
complete description. Then, as the commodity becomes better 
known through advertising, it will automatically graduate from that 
class into the “Half-Known and Half-Wanted.” Then, as something 
which is fairly well-known, it will grow to require emphasis as to its 
special brand, more than in regard to the general class of which it is 
a part. 


CHAP RR UX 


How to Advertise Something ‘‘Unknown-by-Brand”’. 


Now we come to the class of the “Unknown-by-Brand.” Into 
this pigeon hole will go the army of names which have become prac- 
tically a part of the nation’s vocabulary. “Uneeda” Biscuit comes 


2 Wy 


under this class, “Sapolio,’ and all the other well-known cleaners. 
This classification “Unknown-by-Brand” may therefore appear para- 
doxical in name. But, it is so called to suggest that there is nothing 
“Unwanted” about that kind of an article—and, that the sole object 
of the advertising is to change “Unknown-by-Brand” into “By- 
Brand, Well-Known.” Therefore, all products whose utility and 
general properties are utterly familiar, and which are actively wanted 
—yes, needed—fall under this heading. They require no educational 
work. They simply seek popularization, which presentation of name 
through newspaper reiteration, can provide. 

You don’t have to tell the public that “Sapolio” is a Cleaner. 
You need not play up the advantages of keeping the steps in front 
of your home well scoured. Your only task in advertising a certain 
brand like this, (which is part of a species recognized as a necessity) 
is to make the name of your particular kind so well-known, that au- 
tomatically the woman, on going into the store for something of that 
kind, will specify your special brand. 

In other words, the element which you should emphasize in 
order to gain attention, should be the name itself. You may build up 
its attention value as Artemus Ward enhanced that of Sapolio by 
connecting it up with so many different things as to make the name 
each time enjoy the notice that novelty always elicits. And, where 
the chief task is the building up of a special brand of a needed com- 
modity, you can create desire simply through repetition. You must 
drum the name in—time after time—until finally, by newspaper sug- 
gestion, you get the housewife to ask for your brand—instinctively, 
rather than for the one that your competitor has to sell. 


CHAP DER 


How to Find the Appeal of Something 
‘Unknown-by-Brand’’. _ 


It is easiest to bring about action, when advertising a thing 
which is known and needed, as to kind, but is “Unknown-by-Brand.” 
Here, you don’t have to make the buyer spend money that she other- 
wise would not spend. For instance, she would have to get some 
sort of a cleaning powder, anyway; so you do not have to change her 
tendencies, or convictions, a great deal in order to switch her over 
to your brand. So, to get action you must simply persuade the 
woman, either through instinct, or argument, to try your kind the 
next time she is to spend that dime or nickel. 

If you do succeed in getting her to try your brand, it is not so 
much through any appeal to her business tendency. The commer- 
cial profit for her in using your cleansing powder, for instance, in- 
stead of the other fellow’s, is, as a rule, quite negligible. The 
pleasure element is her main susceptibility. You might particularly 
appeal to her on the suggestion that it would be fun to try this new 


18 


kind next time. Thus her weakness would be your best point of 
attack. Your ammunition might be, for instance: “Eventually, why 
_ not now?” Your aim would be to make her say to herself: “What’s 
the use of putting this off, I’ll use this thing some day. I guess I 
will try it the next time I am at the grocer’s.” 

So, in this class, your main job is to hammer home the name. 
Argument is not entirely necessary. In fact, by resorting to reason- 
why, you would probably use up your newspaper space in unprepos- 
sessing type-matter. If, instead of that, you used an eye-catching 
illustration, or an attention-impelling display of the name, then, with 
the same expenditure, you could so much more effectively force your 
brand into the reader’s consciousness. 

In other words, publicity is what you need for this class of 
goods. Suggestion can be accomplished through almost any medium 
—whether it be painted sign, street-car card, or poster. In fact, any 
kind of advertising, including magazine and newspaper, may be suc- 
cessfully used in this kind of endeavor to establish a specific brand. 
But, in this case, the amount of circulation you can buy per dollar 
spent is usually the determining factor. And, on that test, when 
circulation is based on the number who really see the medium, then 
the newspaper is most desirable, even for the merely Suggestive 
publicity. 

Very few try to use the magazines, however, for this kind of 
advertising. The Prophylactic Tooth Brush and 2-in-1 Shoe Polish 
are about the main ones just now. ‘Many, however, utilize the news- 
papers for name-presentation. For instance, Coca Cola, Shredded 
Wheat, H-O, Salada Tea, Royal Baking Powder and others success- 
fully employ the newspapers to keep their Brands so well-known as 
to be public by-words. 


CHAP DER XT 


What Diction Best Carries Appeals to the Prospect? 


“Psychology” is a word that is often used in connection with 
advertising and selling. Usually it is employed loosely. Sometimes 
it is the false weapon of the superficial, who seek to impress through 
the use of high-falutin’ words. It would not be used here at all, if 
it could be dodged. But it is necessary—not as a term designed to 
impress or to mystify—simply as a nick-name for the briefest pos- 
sible description of an important phase of advertising analysis. 

Psychology, here, means just this: The analysis of mental pro- 
cesses—a study of how the human mind works—an observation of 
the way common-sense conducts itself. That is all that psychology 
should mean—simply an analysis of mind-mechanics. 

“Copy” means advertising matter as it is after preparation and 
before it is produced in the newspaper or in printing, or on signs, or 
wherever it is to be presented. The word comes from newspaper 
parlance, where the news writers refer to any matter that they pro- 


19 


duce as “copy.” “Copy” in connection with advertising bears the 
same relation to advertising as “MSS.” (meaning manuscript) bears 
to a book in the realm of literature. However, sometimes a pub- 
lished advertisement may be inaccurately referred to as “copy.” 

So, “Psychology of Copy” simply means: An analysis of adver- 
tising manuscript in its relation to the workings of the human mind. 

If you can analyze your prospects in accordance with some 
such plan as suggested in the previous chapters, you will know the 
phases to which you must appeal. Moreover, you will know what 
points to emphasize, if you use a similar analysis to pick out the 
product’s appeals. Now, consider how to get those arguments into 
the prospect’s mind through those avenues of least resistance. 

Language is the vehicle. This need not be in words, alone. 
Some of the most expressive language of the day is in the form of 
newspaper cartoons. In fact, pictures sometimes describe better 
than mere words. Yes, and just general appearance is often equally 
eloquent. The flaming red tie and checker-board suit on that gam- 
bler announce the manner of man as clearly as if he wore a sign on 
his back saying: “I am a professional sport.” Likewise, the dignity 
of “Pierce-Arrow’ advertising in the newspapers, just through its 
atmosphere, bespeaks luxury, grace, elegance and stability. 

Need it be said that you should use language that your prospect 
can understand? No:— We all know that. Yet, the moment we 
hold our pen poised, ready to write, a message to the public, how we 
are tempted to use big words. Deep down, we are all like the pro- 
verbial colored parson, who impresses his flock with words of many 
syllables, which, incidentally, his parishioners cannot understand. 
These words, however, sometimes make a good general impression, 
and cause the flock to respect their leader as one who is learned— 
awfully learned—and therefore a wise man whose say-so cannot be 
questioned. In this case, long words may be the very best kind of 
advertising for the parson. 

But in advertising, you are up against one of the hardest obsta- 
cles that human nature offers. You have to persuade people to 
spend money—to part with that which their toil has brought them. 
So, you had better use words that will reach your readers, especially 
since in advertising, words cost real money. First of all, your pros- 
pects must understand what you are saying. Otherwise, how could 
you hope to budge them? You must more than persuade. You 
must inspire people to action—to the action of spending their money 
for your goods. Action-ful language is therefore, necessary. 

What is action-ful language? Consider this sentence: “Of mo- 
mentous emolument to the populace of this metropolis, and environs, 
would it be to participate in our semi-annual merchandising event.” 
Almost every word in that sentence is built on Latin roots. On the 
other hand, suppose you said: “You can save money at this twice-a- 
year sale.” This last sentence is made up of good old Anglo-Saxon 
which crackles with crispness. 

Keep away from adjectives as much as possible. After you 
have written an ad, attack all those words which simply qualify, and 
ask of each one: “Does this have to be an adjective? Can a verb 
say the same thing just as well?” If so, you are lucky, because verbs 


20 


swing the reader along, whereas adjectives are passive. Incidentally, 
look at that last sentence. Can’t you feel the action in the verb 
“swing’’—and the inaction in the adjective “passive”? 

Study the style used in the newspaper articles and you will 
know what diction has proven most effective in newspaper advertis- 
ing, and in every other kind of advertising, too. 


CHAR DE Rex Ef 


Is “You’’ the Best Word in an 
Advertiser’s Vocabulary ? 


The best way to get to your reader through advertising “copy,” 
is by the direct, active way. That is—asarule. For, although sim- 
ple language is almost always best, there are a few exceptions when 
conditions may require long words. For instance, in the advertise- 
ment of something of exclusive class, when directed to a few who can 
understand polysyllabic words, and who are likely to buy, on ac- 
count of atmosphere and prestige, rather than because of business- 
like reasons of price and quality—in such few cases, you may be bet- 
ter able to persuade if you use the superb elegance of lofty language 
and delicate indirection. 

But to the millions, you must talk “turkey.” And you have got 
to put what you want to say, in terms that will not only get to their 
understanding, but-will-hit + eir-seHishness. In brief, what 
interests most people most, is their_own personalities. A man is 
willing to listen about himself and his own interests all day long. His 
ear soon tires, however, if you try to tell him the story of your life. 
This human trait is also found in women. 

“You,” then, is about the best word in the advertising writer’s 
vocabulary. Yet, some “copy” that you see in ads, is you d’ to 
death. Of course, there are excesses in the use of the “ you’ quality. 
But, as a rule, you cannot use too much “you.” Surely you can get 
a man’s attention best with “you copy.” You certainly can interest 
him best with “you copy.” Furthermore, how could you convince 
him, and thus get him to act, if your persuasion is not of the “you” 
kind? 

And yet you can get this same virtue of © you’ * quality into your 
“copy” without ever using the word “you.” All you need to do is to 
make your “copy” personal. For instance, when you see “United 
States,” you don’t feel that you are included. If you see the name 
of your state, you are a little more interested. If you see the name 
of your locality, you are still more interested. The mention of your 
- own name, or of some peculiarity in connection with you or your 
circle—that is what would interest you most of all. 

So, if you live in Smithville, and an ad starts off with “Of the 
1,800 Folk in Smithville,” you are a lot more apt to read on, than if 
the head-line said “ATTENTION.” For by localizing your “copy,” 


21 


99 


you can personalize it—personalize it in the second person, and get 
the “you” quality there in its full essence, even if you do not use that 
particular pronoun. Obviously, for this localization and personal- 
ization of “copy,” there is no medium as good as the home news- 
paper. 

To suggest, rather than to say it right out, is “literary.” That 
is why a good many writers make very poor advertising men, where- 
as mere busineess men—particularly salesmen—are apt to create 
the most effective ad “copy.” The literary fallacy is usually found 
where the conceit of some merchant or manufacturer has made him 
victim to the persuasion of some “genius” who would write up his 
business. This literary genius forthwith plucks from his imagina- 
tion some possible connection, either of name, historic assocciation, 
or something of that kind, with which to link the name of Smith— 
his pro tem employer. ‘That done, he sets forth to glorify that in- 
cident with which he has hooked up the name of Smith. Thus, he 
is able to go into flowers of fancy eloquence in eulogy of the man 
who is paying him for the ad. And the more nearly this kind of an 
ad-writer thus deifies the man’s business, the better he is apt to be 
paid for this literary creation of his. 

But where is the head and tail of this kind of “copy?’ What is 
the aim? Does the manufacturer want to charge the cost of this 
advertising in with selling expense? Or does he want to put it down 
among the “incidentals” and justify it through the fact that his 
daughter will be able to show it to her friends, thus proving that her 
father is one of the finest? But, if the ad is for selling purposes, why 
doesn’t it tell people why they should buy of Smith? Of course, 
though, if the thing is designed for daughters delectation—then 
that’s all right—Smith can probably afford that personal indulgence. 

Only a man’s relatives and friends are interested in “copy” that 
is all about him. Such people would buy from him anyway. It’s the 
people who don’t care a hang whether your name is Smith or Per- 
kins, but who will buy from you if they feel that you will give them 
better value—they are the ones to whom you have to talk. Other- 
wise your advertising would not be justified—at least, not on any 
basis of business. And fortunately, newspapers are able to boast of 
more “business-like” advertising than is found in the usual medium 
—although magazine advertising, for instance, may be more “liter- 
ary.” And perhaps that is why newspaper advertising generally pays 
so well. 


CHAPTER XIII 


What Is the Best Way to Attract the Eye? 


The easiest approach, then, to your prospect’s mind is through 
the “You” avenue, but you cannot get at your possible customer 
through any appeal to his interests unless you get him to read what 
you have to say. The element that will make it possible for you to 
attract his attention is Display. | 


22 


Display is probably the most important single factor in all ad- 
vertising, Surely no Beane is worth-while unless it gets atten- 
tion, and that is the function of display. Display is of two kinds— 
the mechanical kind that simply catches the physical eye, regardless 


of any action of the reader’s mind; and secondly, the psychological 
kind, which wins attention through t_that it calls forth some 


active mental interest of the prospect. 
The first kind, the Eye-Display, wins its aim by catching the 


optic nerve. For instance, such display may attract through a bor- 
der. Take, for example, a want ad page in a newspaper. Look at it 
from a distance. Doesn’t it seem gray, and flat? Now take a little 
ad in the center of that page. Rule it off with heavy black lines an 
eighth of an inch thick. That box-border will make that inch ad 
stand out so strongly that it will have as much display value as an 
ordinary ad, many, many times its size. 

Or this Eye-Display can be accomplished through other means 
of contrast. For instance, suppose you surround your message with 
a lot of white space. This lack of typography in the vicinity of your 
advertisement is so unusual that it will also catch the eye. Thus it 
will possess Eye-Display value of high power. You often see this 
method used effectively in newspapers. 

Sometimes Eye-Display may be brought about through mere 
beauty. But in commercial advertising, that is about the least effec- 
tive kind, because the average eye is not keenly moved by art. The 
beautiful may passively attract, but it doesn’t stir the eye and grip 
the attention the way contrast, or novelty can and does. 

In seeking to attract the eye with Beauty, you would probably 
use an illustration rather than try to rely on mere type, or graceful 
arrangement. Anyway, the illustration is certainly first and fore- 
most as an instrument to attract either the eye or the mind. The 
first topography was by way of pictures. And today, the human 
mind still continues to choose illustrations above mere text of read- 
ing matter. And yet, quite often it would seem that simply for 
Eye-Display, type can do the business alone—that is, without the aid 
of illustration. In such cases, however, it is more what the words 
say than the mere Eye-Display of type that accomplishes the result. 
In other words, this attraction is more mental than physical. 

There are two other big elements in Eye-Display. The first is 
Color, and the second is Size. Both of these have certain influence 
on the intensity of any message and both of them offer temptations 
which may prove treacherous pitfalls to the unwary advertiser. For, 
although the display is the most important of all elements, it must 
not be emphasized to the sacrifice of favorable impression, because, 
often the far-fetched use of a repulsive display-combination, for in- 
stance, may spoil the power of the advertisement. And while Beauty, 
in its rarest sense, may be out of place in ordinary Eye-Display, and 
may justify its existence only in connection with the advertisement 
of things of exclusive flavor or of superlative taste—nevertheless, 
negative Beauty, or, at least, freedom from repellent ugliness, is nec- 
essary. 

Such negative art is something that every advertiser should 
have as a plank in his working platform. So when you are tempted 


23 


to combine a screaming yellow with a flaming red, resist. Dont let 
yourself hurt the persuasive ability of your work simply in order to 
have your ad attract more eyes. On the other hand, good Eye-Dis-. 
play should not only increase the attention-getting quality of an ad, 
but should also supplement its ability to create a desire in favor of 
that which it advertises. 

Fortunately for newspaper advertising, in such mediums, vio- 
lations of the rules of color harmony are seldom possible. Yet, in 
the plain black-and-white of such pages violations of similar princi- 
ples of Eye-Display often occur—usually through efforts to make 
the attention-getting part of the advertising so heavy with black ink 
as to repel the eye rather than to attract. If such excess of contrast 
does not actually repel the eye, it may at least keep it from pleas- 
antly sauntering into the message which the ad has to tell. 

The eye is sensitive, and does not like to be hit too hard. There- 
fore, the Eye-Display that attracts in a simple way—with taste and 


in harmony with the rest of the ad—that kind of Eye-Display is the 


kind that usually wins. 


CHAPTER SXTY 


How Does Mind-Display Do Its Work ? 


In addition to the merely physical display, there is another 
kind, which should be differentiated from Eye-Display. This is 
Mind-Display—the kind that attracts the mind. It is subtle, and far 
less mechanical. Nevertheless, the same mechanical means as make 
for Eye-Display, may also be used to bring about Mind-Display. But, 
instead of this working through the few physical laws of the optical 
nerves, Mind-Display must deal with the multitudinous and less 
definite laws of the mental processes. In other words, Mind-Display. 
is more a matter of Psychology, for it must fit in with the mechanics 
of. the brain itself, if it is to succeed. 

Take, for instance, the kind of display which prompts us to 
sympathize. That wins our interest, and attention, through the fact 
that it strikes a common chord in our make-up. It would attract a 
blind man, quite as well. Suppose, for instance, without any artifi- 
cial stretch of the imagination, we are able to associate the thing, 
which we have to sell, with some cause in which our prospective 
purchasers have a keen interest. Imagine, for example, that we are 
advertising a certain product while our country is at war with Mex- 
ico. If wecan carry, in our display, a suggestion of love. for the 
flag, a hatred for the foe, and if, at the same time, we can logically 
weave into that suggestion a persuasive argument in favor of our 
product, then we will win a keener interest than we could possibly 
win without this association of ideas. 

“Fusion’ is what this system of getting attention is sometimes 
called. It is merely a system of Eee up that which eee 
vertising, with something which of itself will appeal. ne idea is 

stidpilabaabet ane Nagin: hares al ea 


24 


that if you join your product on to some other element which excites 
the reader’s sympathy, then, your product will unconsciously be 
given some of the kindly feeling which goes out toward the asso- 
ciated idea. 7 

Thus it is that in advertising writing, it is always desirable to 
make our illustrations show people whom we admire. For instance, 
if you are advertising a soda-fountain drink, it is better to show a 
picture of a lot of beautiful debutantes sipping the beverage at some 
palatial drug store than it is to portray a bunch of dirty, bare-footed 
brats guzzling the stuff at some dilapidated fruit-stand on the street 
corner. As far as argument is concerned, the enjoyment of the ur- 
chin may theoretically be as strong, by way of persuasion, as the 
pleasure that those young ladies experience. But, practically, we 
do not think much of the street arab’s taste, whereas the finely- 
dressed girl is supposed to be an epicure. Thus, through Fusion, we 
find that of these two kinds of Mind-Display the one with better 
persuasion is the kind which suggests an associated idea which calls 
forth our admiration, or, at least, approval. 

Of course, there are exceptions to this, particularly where so- 
called negative “copy’ is necessary. In this case, where you have © 
to use fear in order to bring about a sale, it may be desirable for you 
to get your Mind-Display by Fusion with that which is most despic- 
able. For instance, in advertising liniment for rheumatism, the best 
kind of display from a Fusion standpoint, might be the repulsive 
figure of a used-up man, whose limbs were all gnarled up, almost 
beyond the point of human semblance. 

On the other hand, suggestion can often be used to good effect, 
in connection with Mind-Display, to take the place of many words. 
There is the case of the beautiful girl wearing Niagara-Maid gloves. 
Although she is pictured in the black-and-white of the newspaper 
page, she is dainty enough to suggest the quality and refinement of 
the kind of gloves she wears. And, remember the be-whiskered face 
of the kindly old doctor who looks up at you out of your newspaper. 
His eye just flashes with the sparkle of health. That keen look, plus 
the words, “He don’t use coffee,” suggests volumes of persuasion— 
and, furthermore, accomplishes its first task of winning the reader’s 
eye. Such is a combination of Eye-Display with Mind-Display, 
with some persuasion-through-suggestion also included. 

Repetition is likewise accomplished through Mind-Display. In 
fact, for that purpose, ‘“Mind-Display” is supremely important. 
Some of the nationally advertised articles, on which a million or more 
is spent each year, were once financial failures. With most of them, 
the first year showed a balance on the wrong side of the ledger. But, 
the men who then lost weight wondering how they were going to 
meet their advertising bills, are mostly retired millionaires today. 
The little element of accumulative result—through repetition—that 
has been the keynote to these successes. 

This “snowball” process, by which the effects of an advertising 
campaign keep piling up, depends on repetition. For instance, sup- 
pose H-O, which you see in the newspapers week in and week out, 
had changed its name to “Sweet Oats” after the first year and then, 
after that, to “Oatlets” and after that to something else—changing 


25 


its name year after year. Suppose the first year they used a Dutch 
Girl as the keystone of their advertising, and suppose that, the sec- 
ond year they used a soaring eagle as their trade-mark. Such suppo- 
sitions are foolish, but the point is this: If H-O had not stuck to a 
certain trade-mark, and had not adhered to that style of advertising 
with which every newspaper reader is familiar, would H-O be the 
factor that it is in the cereal market of today? 

No. Any sensible man knows that H-O (and all the rest of 
the big successes that advertising has to its credit) has been built 
on repetition. It may be repetition of argument. It may be repe- 
tition of trade-mark. Probably it is repetition of all the different 
elements. Particularly, the repetition is probably of Mind-Display, 
by which, at a glance, the ads have continually caused the readers 
to say: “I have heard about that before.” Thus, if the atmosphere 
of your advertising is kept continuous and fairly uniform—and if 
the Mind-Display of this week’s ad enjoys a favorable Fusion, or 
harmony, with the Mind-Display of the ads that have been, then 
there is apt to be a repetitive value which makes for a cumulative re- 
sult—which will give a total of advertising benefit which will far ex- 
ceed the sum of the separate benefits of the individual ads. 

Take the case of a department store. The reason it does a busi- 
ness this year of far and above last year (which in turn showed big- 
ger volume than the year before) is this cumulative result. Most 
department store ads could be identified by a newspaper’s readers, 
even if they were not signed. Their atmosphere would tell the tale. 
The Mind-Display would suggest so many previous ads that the 
reader would almost feel that this was So-and-So’s announcement. 

That continuity of Mind-Display is what makes cumulative 
benefit out of repetition of advertising. It not only works for the 
local institution—it also makes big successes of national enterprises. 
In the case of Castoria, the simple repetition of name, with one or 
two homely arguments, has won. Few know what Castoria’s reason- 
why says, but the mere name—in connection with that Mind- 
Display of peculiar appearance—talks through the newspaper almost 
every day—today in the whisper of very small space—tomorrow in 
the thunder of quarter-page size—to the result that Castoria becomes 
imbedded in the public mind as an institution—though largely built 
of the ink and pulp which make a newspaper. 


CHAPTER XV 


Can Ads Be Made Effective Through 
Fusion With News ? 


There are channels other than the emotions, through which 
you could get favorable Mind-Display through Fusion. Especially, 
if you are using the Newspapers, you hitch up your own selfish story 
with a piece of news which, of itself, wins interest, whether it excite 
sympathy or not. For instance, one clever advertiser at the outbreak 


26 


of the European conflagration, came out with an “Anti-War Sale.” 
In this he not only gathered unto his merchandise the attention of 
timeliness, but also, he partially converted to his own use, the 
interest which people had in the War. 

There are many instances of this kind of Fusion. For instance, 
in the Mexican turmoil, when Americans were so interested, the 
Fairbanks Company came out with, “If we must clean up Mexico, 
why not let the Gold Dust Twins do it?” This clever soap manufac 
turer virtually stole for his own washing powder an interest which 
the Mexican War had wrought. Such Mind-Display, built on Fusion 
with news-interest, can of course be best secured where the news is 
paramount—namely, in the newspaper. 

There is another means of Fusion, through Mind-Display, 
which persuades the mind, rather than attracts the eye, although it 
does both. This style puts the product into a novel relationship 
with some atmosphere which, of itself, pleases the prospect. For 
example, remember the old ad of the Lowney people who, dur- 
ing the hot summer months, found it profitable to place a box of 
their chocolates on the snowy bank of an ice-clad river. The 
Uneeda Biscuit people also made a hit with a similar idea, by por- 
traying their box of crackers frozen into the center of a cake of ice. 

Although Fusion is a mighty usable element, it can often be 
misused. There are a good many accidental instances, in which 
Fusion works against the success of an advertisement. For instance, 
where your ad, particularly if you happen to be advertising a food 
product, is placed next to an announcement showing the picture of 
a tomb stone, you are justified in crying out against the sad side of 
Fusion, for such Mind-Display which associated your food with a 
cemetery, cannot help but cast some atmosphere of undesirability 
around the goods which you advertise. 

Most newspapers not only steer clear from that kind of bad 
Fusion—they also seek, in all possible ways, to build up—purposely 
—a Fusion of ideas that will help the advertiser. Sometimes, they 
almost go to extremes, as in one case, in which the ads sought to 
win Mind-Display through the element of timeliness. The ad for 
the first week in October, mentioned October. Therefore, the pub- 
lisher of a certain paper, which usually published a calendar of the 
current month in every issue, placed this October ad right below 
the calendar of October. One might have thought that the calendar 
was part of the ad, and had been paid for by the advertiser. 

At the beginning of the European War, there was a lot of 
advertising which sought to build its pull through mention of the 
war. Therefore, most advertisers wanted their ads placed along- 
side of reading matter in regard to the war. Such favorable Fusion, 
which indirectly results from neighboring atmosphere, is fairly easy 
for the newspaper publisher to give. And he usually gives it, cheer- 
fully, and calls it part of his paper’s “service.” 

In fact, even if the publisher himself does not arrange the 
details, the make-up man—the typographical expert, who actually 
builds up each newspaper page—he knows more about advertising 
than many advertisers. Therefore, on his own initiative, this man 
in the composing room often builds the page so that each ad will 


27 


get as much as possibié of this indirect Mind-Display which results 
from this Fusion with neighboring news. 

Of course, such Fusion is quite impossible in mediums where 
there is no news. Some magazines are enlarging their pages, so as 
to put the ads alongside of reading matter. But such publications, 
as a rule, lack the timeliness that makes possible this kind of Fusion. 
Likewise, with painted bulletins, or street car cards, or bill boards, 
it is quite impossible for the owners of such mediums to provide 
this kind of beneficial Fusion. The only Fusion such ads are apt 
to get, is the confusion with the competing ads which are usually 
on both sides. For favorable Fusion, the newspaper is certainly 
king. 

Yet, there are cases where harmful Mind-Display results from 
unfortunate Fusion caused by purpose, and not by accident. The 
main example of this lies in the all too frequent use of some repul- 
sive figure in connection with the advertisement of desirable goods. 
For instance, a proverbial example, is the picture of the slimy frog as 
a trade-mark in connection with high-grade coffee. No one can see 
that reptile without saying “Ugh.” And the “Ugh” cannot help 
but be carried over into the reader’s judgment of the coffee. Such 
violation of the rule of Fusion is space-wasting and worse. Of 
course, the explanation is that the would-be advertiser seeks, through 
some treak, to attract attention. Perhaps he does attract attention, 
but if at the same time he persuades his prospect not to buy that 
which he is paying to advertise to that prospect, what good is the 
attention which his clever freak has secured for him? 


CHAr Pex Val 


How Does Size Aid Display? 


You must get your advertising read. How can you make sure 
of that point? Make it BIG? 

About the most elusive question you will have to face in the 
consideration of advertising “copy” is the problem of size. Some- 
times an ad may be one-quarter as big, (and, therefore, cost one- 
quarter as much) and yet pull just as efficiently as a larger ad. 
Other times you waste your money if you use a small space, whereas 
an advertisement twice as big may pay well. 

The question of size, in general, can be divided into two heads, 
according to the main aim of the use of BIGNESS. Either it 
strives for intensity—seeking to hit with the power of a rifle shot 
—or else it tries, through mere bigness, to monopolize attention. 
In this case it is more like the volley of a shot-gun. 

If you use BIGNESS as an intensity by which to grip the in- 
terest of the reader, you can supplement the display with color in 
some cases. Then, too, you may find that black-and-white CON- 
TRAST will do the work. In some cases you may employ mere 
novelty to win the reader’s interest. 


28 


When color is possible, it sometimes takes the place of size. A 
red spot as big as a dime in the center of a newspaper page, would 
win as many eyes as an ordinary black-and-white space one hundred 
times as large. In such texts you will find the whole realm of 
color divided into a spectrum. By this, you can see scientifically 
which colors are complementary to one another, and, which ones 
are antagonistic. ! 

The science of color analyzes even further—not only in relation 
to the ten major colors, but also as to the three qualities which every 
color possesses, namely: Hue, value and chroma. And yet to an 
ordinary understanding of advertising, you do not need to know the 
detailed mechanics of color. You must know though, that in the 
matter of attention-value, (the element, which justifies color in ad- 
vertising) the main colors are red, green and black—and in that or- 
der. Yet black may sometimes be stronger than red, especially if 
the surrounding color is predominantly red. For instance, on a 
booklet with a cover of pink stock, black will have a far higher at- 
tention-value than red. 

Thus, you see, color may sometimes take the place of size, in 
getting attention. But if the aim be to impress—and to stun the 
attention, rather than to harpoon it—then just plain black is the 
best. 

Of course, the larger you make your ad, the better it will draw 
the eye. Then, too, psychological tests have proven that the smaller 
the comparative size of competing factors, the greater the attention- 
value of a given ad. Take for example, the usual page of a news- 
paper. There your half-page advertisement would be almost sure to 
be seen. Whereas on a page made up of ads averaging ten and 
fifteen inches in size, a six-inch ad would have less chance than if it 
were on a page with ads which did not so over-shadow yours in size. 


But, beware of mere bigness in copy. It presents many, many 
pitfalls. For instance, if you run your advertisement across three 
columns. Your first temptation would be to have each reading 
line run straight across those three columns. You might think that 
such a three-column line would impress more than three one-column 
lines. Theoretically, you might be right. Yet you must bear in 
mind above all that your average line of three-columns width, will be 
hard to read. For, people are USED to reading the ordinary single- 
column line of the average newspaper. 


Legibility, of course, is about the first and foremost factor in 
your advertisement. If the ad cannot be read, what good is it? 
So, if a thirst for size leads you to run a reading line across three 
columns, then size hurts legibility and is bad. 


You face the same danger in any attempt at mere bigness of 
type. Often the desire to get a good black display of your reading 
matter will result in an illegible smear, so ugly that it is more apt to 
repel than to attract the attention of, the reader. For the human 
eye is sensitive and fastidious. 

Thoughtless quest for size, as a strengthener of your ad, may 
tempt you to select all capital letters. Such typography is suicidal 
to easy-reading—for the same reason as that which spoils the legibil- 
ity of reading lines of too great width. 


29 


Yet, if we but think, we can easily see the logic of this. The 
human eye is used to reading the news in a newspaper. The usual 
news column is a little over two inches wide. It is made up almost 
entirely of small letters. Therefore, when you force an eye to travel 
over all capitals—a style of type entirely different from that to which 
it is so accustomed— the eye is apt to revolt. 

Your search for size may also lead to thundering headlines. 
But, experiments in psychological laboratories have not only proven 
beyond a doubt that your eye can best grasp the type which is of 
“upper and lower case” (that is—of capital and small letters), but, 
also, these experiments prove that the eye cannot grasp more than 
four “units” at one time. So, in headlines, where each word is vir- 
tually a “unit,” you can well understand why the caption which com- 
prises more than four words, violates a psychophysical law. 

When, within an ad, you use BIGNESS to attract attention 
to some special point in an ad, this use of size will win out, in pro- 
portion to the seldomness with which you resort to such a method 
of emphasis. Italics are often better than mere all-capital letters— 
or mere blackness. Yet italics are hard to read because they are 
unnatural. For that same reason, italics are apt to hurt the even- 
running of the reading eye. .Therefore, if you wish to emphasize a 
certain word or set of words, the better way is to underscore, when 
that is possible. 

In the news-column, (on which the human eye has been 
“brought up,” as it were) you will find little, or no, emphasis, either 
by way of capitals, or italics, or underscore. So the eye is not edu- 
cated to word-emphasis through the news-column. 

Therefore, the eye’s education, so far as emphasis goes, must be 
through some other medium—probably, the personal letter. And 
when you emphasize in hand-writing, you use. the underscore 
method. That is why this method is regarded as the natural, and 
therefore the best way to accomplish internal emphasis, when in- 
ternal emphasis is necessary. 


CHAP THR: vill 


What Determines Size of Ad? 


In seeking to find an answer to the question: “What size should 
an ad be?” many experiments have been made. These have tended 
to build contradictory conclusions. Some tests, for instance, would 
prove that a full page is four times as effective as a half page, and a 
half page is three times as effective as a quarter page. But such 
proof is fallacious. In fact there have never been enough cases to 
establish any such law. 


These experiments, purposed to determine some kind of a 
law, are made on the basis of a few advertisements. For instance, 
they ask a man to look through a magazine and see what ads he can 


30 


remember. Then they have another man do the same thing. Then 
it is found, after adding all these ads, that the subjects recall four 
times as many full page advertisements as they do half page ads. 


But, alas—so many different kinds of foreign factors enter 
into such a test that the conclusions can’t be final. For instance, 
a man may remember a full page advertisement of Williams’ Soap 
because that is the kind which he, himself, uses. So, if he recalled 
a Williams’ Soap ad, that wouldn’t mean that he remembered it 
solely on account of the fact that it occupied a large space. 


What’s the use? We can never fix any universal law that will 
determine all questions of space. Yet, there ought to be some 
possibility of knowing just how big a space you should use for a 
certain kind of an article under certain conditions. By experiment, 
you can find such an answer rather conclusively. But, even then, 
if you were to use those same tests in different parts of the country 
you would never know with any mathematical certainty. For, the 
quarter page you use in the East, and the half page in the West, 
will bring various results. And, if the sales in the West are over 
twice as great as in the East, that would not necessarily prove that 
your half page is over twice as effective as the quarter page. Other 
causes may have brought the result. 


Size depends on the kind of a product you advertise and upon 
the specific merchandising conditions. For instance, suppose that 
your product is such as wins a voluntary interest on the part of 
the reader. People look for your ad—and read it of their own 
accord. Then you do not need as much space as if you required 
an involuntary attention—as if you had to make your prospect 
read your ad in spite of his instinct. 

In other words, if you advertise a cream separator in an 
agricultural publication, you will enjoy a voluntary interest, because 
people in the market for that kind of a thing at that time would 
probably, of their own accord, look through the advertising pages 
of that publication for some kind of a cream separator. Therefore, 
they would look at your ad with a purposed attention. 


On the other hand, if you were advertising a Curtis aeroplane, 
you would probably find very few of the readers who would be in 
the market for such a luxury. Practically no one would look pur- 
posely for a proposition such as your ad presented. ‘Therefore, in 
order to force attention, you would have to shout louder. Con- 
sequently, you would have to use bigger space. 


Take an example less far-fetched than an aeroplane. Suppose 
you have to advertise some soap. Nobody says, “Where’s this 
week’s Journal—I want to see if there are any soap advertisements 
in it.” Yet, Mr. Farmer frequently says, ‘““‘Where's this week’s 
Journal—I want to see if there are any cream separator advertise- 
ments in it.” So, in regard to your soap, if it is to get attention, 
it will have to work for it, and in order to create that unwilling 
interest, it must talk through fairly large space. 

Luckily, it is often true that the more universal the possible 
demand for a thing, the less voluntary is the interest required. The 


31 


reason may be that that which is of universal need, is usually made 
by so many different manufacturers that it is continually and widely 
advertised. For instance, take the case of cleaning powders. They 
are advertised and advertised. By virtue of that fact, readers 
become used to cleansing powder ads. When people do pay atten- 
tion to them, it is not because of their will, but because the power 
of the copy compels their interest in spite of their apathetic instinct. 


Articles of universal demand enjoy a great enough sale so that 
the expenditure necessary for increased size of space is warranted. 
But on the other hand, if the demand is limited and specific, as 
for instance, in case of rubber roofing, you could not afford to use 
such big space because so small a percentage of your readers would 
happen to be in the market for that thing at that particular time. 
Yet, by this same lucky coincidence, you would not need such big 
space because those readers who were earnestly in the market for 
rubber roofing at that time, would be seeking out such advertising. 
They would apply toward it a voluntary, rather than an involuntary 
interest, and therefore you would get their attention even if your 
Space were small. 

The advertisement which is disguised as regular news-matter, 
strategically enjoys the voluntary interest which a reader naturally 
applies to the kind of news matter which such an ad imitates. This 
steals attention, even though it have neither contrast, novelty nor 
size. ‘Nor does such even need illustration, except as the illustration 
may pretend to be a regular newspaper illustration. For, in so far 
as this kind of “‘reader’ advertisement looks like news-matter, which 
it is not, in that far it wins attention. 

But the ordinary display advertisement is obviously a paid ad 
and, as such, makes no claim on the attention of the reader, except 
in so tar as it can win the reader’s eye, either through merit of 
dispiay, or through some other kind of interest-getting quality. 
Heie enters the illustration—the strongest single factor in all ad- 
vertising. For, the illustration is both word and picture, at one 
ard the same time. Some things it can describe, as no language 
could describe them—and it transmits its message at a _ glance 
r3athe: than through tedious perusal. 

The picture is usually used to describe the article which the ad 
presents. But, a good illustration can very profitably describe the 
argument, as well as the article. When employed to explain in one 
cuick-flash the meat of an argument, the picture is apt to take the 
form of a caption. For instance, call to mind the picture of the man 
looking into the mirror and seeing the wrinkles on his face in proof 
that he is getting haggard from over-working. The use of “San- 
atogen” is the answer. Thus one illustration can suggest more 
virtues of that nerve-remedy than any number of words could con- 
vey—because mere words could never create so vivid an impression. 
Moreover, in many cases, unadorned words often fail even to win a 
superficial reading, while a picture never fails to land at least a 
glance. 


o2 


CRAY TE Rove nT 


How Does Illustration Help Display ? 


Illustrations are usually used to portray the goods advertised. 
In this case the halt-tone (the style of engraving which one produces, 
a photograph or wash-drawing) is usually employed. Such repro- 
duction is apt to be most lifelike. Therefore, if you seek to show 
what the goods look like, the half-tone is best when feasible. 


But if you would use the cartoon style of illustration, so as to 
tell your story through a picture, then you will find that the pen- 
and-ink style, or just plain “line” cut works best. Most newspaper 
cartoons are of this style, and even when the smoothness of stock 
might permit the use of a photographic plate, the pen-and-ink kind 
will hit harder if the illustration seeks to persuade. For the pen- 
and-ink illustration has a.dash and a vim—a natural strength and a 
rugged action such as the half-tone can never attain. 


Often you can make your illustration perform both functions 
—illustrate the article, and also suggest the reasons why the reader 
should buy. In fact, this dual-purposed illustration is the ideal. 
Here’s one, for instance, that shows a happy-faced woman at work 
with a vacuum sweeper—another portrays an enviable plutocrat at 
the wheel of a high-powered automobile. In both of these cases, 
the half-tone style of illustration or the photographic kind is pre- 
ferable, if feasible, because here, your first task is to picture your 
vacuum cleaner or your machine. Incidentally, the illustration may 
suggest: “That woman looks contented even when she’s sweeping 
—it must be easy with that vacuum cleaner,” or “My—lI wish I 
had a car like that!” 

And yet, although you can make your illustration so effective 
as an adjunct to your advertising, many people wastefully use pic- 
tures. Sometimes false economy leads the space-user to take any 
old illustration which happens to be on hand. He uses it in an ad 
which deals with a subject which the illustration does not illustrate. 
Thus, in order to save a few cents—the few cents that the new en- 
graving and art-work would cost—such false economists practically 
throw away the space which they have paid many dollars to buy. 


Yet there is a worse crime than this misuse of an illustration 
which does not illustrate. There are some pictures which not only 
do not help out—but which actually atmosphere the goods with re- 
pulsive connotation. For instance, take the time-honored example 
of the slimy frog employed to illustrate a coffee label. That kind of 
misuse is almost suicidal. But such is not as common as_ the 
negative mistake of using pictures which mean nothing—such as 
the illustration of shoe polish ads, etc., with irrelevant pictures of 
an armless Venus, et al. 

Then, too, beware the temptation to rely too much upon ar- 
rows for illustration. Look out. Keep in mind the old story about 
the lad who cried “wolf!” Remember he threatened so often that 
his warning of “wolf!” finally failed to put fear into the hearts of his 


3 33 


hearers. The cry became an old story to them. To hear it became 
part of their habit. Therefore, the warning attracted less and less 
attention. 

So it is with arrows. At first this form of illustration was 
tremendously attractive. But, there have been so many arrows used 
in so many different ways, that today the arrow glides off the 
reader’s eye quite as water does from a duck’s head. 

And yet, though the arrow idea has been overdone, the arrow 
is still worth while as an aid to other illustrations. For surely you 
can get action into your advertisement if you use the arrow. To the 
reader's eye, the arrows seem to run. They mean movement—and, 
through that fact, the arrow helps to carry along the reader’s eye 
and in that way acts as an appetizer to the prospect’s potential desire 
to read the ad. 3 

Yes, arrows often help. But, also, arrows often hinder. Just 
as you can use them to help grease the way for the reading eye, so 
also you may misuse your arrows so that they clog and block. 
Everybody knows, of course, that the American eye runs from left 
to right. True, the Chinese eye does not. The Oriental reads from 
bottom to top, whereas the native Hebrew reads his Yiddish from 
right to left. 

But the American and the European eye travels from left to 
right, for it has been trained by reading language, and American and 
European language is written from left to right. Therefore, if your 
arrow does not run from left to right it hinders rather than helps. 

For instance, suppose you paint a black line of type matter 
across a big out-door bulletin board. Suppose, over the top of 
this line, and parallel, you paint a huge arrow, just as big as the 
reading line, running from right to left. Suppose beneath this read- 
ing line you paint another big arrow running from right to left. 
That line, words between these two arrows running in an opposite 
direction, will be far harder to read than if the arrows were not 
there, or if the. arrows ran from left to right, the same way as the 
reading eye would run when perusing that line. 

Not only in regard to arrows, but also in regard to other things, 
you can adhere to this left-and-right rule without sacrifice of any 
other virtue. Suppose, for instance, that you must illustrate an - 
automobile. You can do this just as well by having the front at 
the right and the rear at the left. And yet, the first 14 pictures of 
motor cars, which a group of ad men recently investigated, all 
pointed from right to left, that is, opposite to the natural direction 
ot the reading eye. In fact, even if the illustration be that of a 
numan face, why not have the profile face toward the right, rather 
than toward the left? 

If you bear this point in mind you can almost always make 
the direction of your illustration harmonize with the natural course 
of the human eye—namely, from left to right. 

sty, Ae —— = ee 


o4 


CHAP DED ATX 


A Few Typographical Rudiments. 


You will find almost as many different kinds of type as there 
have been creative geniuses in the art of printing. In general, how- 
ever, these kinds of type may be divided into four big classes—Old 
Style, Modern, Gothic and Text. 

In each such family there are many relatives, each with a dif- 
ferent name. But they are all quite similar and the advertiser need 
not burden his mind with their appellations. You can usually have 
a type book at hand for reference, so that you can select the font 
you want. 

What does face mean? Face refers to the series of all the let- 
ters and figures, etc., in each special branch of the type family. Face 
is a special term which applies to each different classification of 
type in particular. 

For instance, a Cheltenham font would be a certain branch of 
the Old Style classification. But there are different tribes of even the 
Cheltenham. For instance, there is a Cheltenham “condensed,” 
which means that the letters, etc., in this particular subdivision are 
abnormally narrow. If you wish a Cheltenham type which is abnor- 
mally fat, you will have to ask for the Cheltenham “extended.” Then, 
too, there is the Cheltenham italic, which refers to the kind of Chel- 
tenham whose component types slant from lower left to upper right. 

“Bold” specifies the style of face which makes a heavy impres- 
sion and this is sometimes called “black face.” Its opposite is the 
light face type whose printing surface is thin and whose impression, 
therefore, is dainty. 

While the Gothic family is rugged, plainer and simpler, you can 
employ the Old Style and accomplish strength and boldness without 
sacrificing the graceful curves and other little points of prettiness 
which distinguish this face from the blunter Gothic. 

In size, types vary from that which is so small that it is called 
“pearl,’ up to that which is so large that it has to be carved out of 
wood, for if it were lead it would be quite heavy to handle. 

You hear printers say, “That’s 8-point—that is too small, it 
ought to be 12-point.” 

What do they mean by point? This point system is simple 
enough. <A point is merely an arbitrary measurement which equals 
1-72 of an inch, so when you want to use type an inch high, you 
specify 72-point. If you want your reading matter of letters 1-6 
of an inch high, you would indicate 12-point. There is some type 
as small as 5-point—smaller, therefore, than a fourteenth of an inch 
high. 

A point, then, is a technical term to designate the height of 
type. The width of a unit of type naturally varies. The letter I, of 
course, is narrower than the letter W. Luckily the letter M is just 
about as wide as it is high. Out of this happenstance grows the fact 
that the unit of width measurement is called an “em.” The em, 
therefore, of any certain height of normal type would be the width 
of the letter M in that particular size. In other words, the em would 


30 


be as wide in number of points as that particular type happened to 
be high. 

So it follows that the em, in connection with the 12-point type, 
would be 12 points wide. Therefore, since in this case the unit of 
measurement is 1-6 of an inch, there would be six ems in each inch 
of width. Therefore, a column two inches wide would comprise 12 
ems. Likewise, the em in a style of type 36 points high would be 
36 points or %-inch wide—and so on. 

“Better make this a 12-em column.” Sometimes you will hear 
the printer say that, without regard to the size of type which is to 
be used. Whether it is to be 12 points high, or 18 points, or of still 
some other height. But the em, when used independently in this 
way, refers to a pica em, which is always a 12-point type. This, 
then, is the usual em used in designating column widths, and even 
though we do not know what the height of type can be, we can un- 
derstand a 12-em width to mean two inches wide—whenever such 
specification is made without regard to size of type. 


“Line” is another arbitrary point of measurement in publica- 
tion phraseology. Most space is sold on the basis of this unit. This 
is technically an agate line, which is theoretically 51% points high. 
In other words, there are 14 of these lines to an inch, therefore, in a 
newspaper, for instance, where the space is quoted at 10c a line, 
$1.40 would be the price for each inch of height in a given column. 

But if such lines of type were set “well-leaded,” they would 
occupy more than one inch for each 14 lines, because leaded means 
that there would be little lead partitions separating each line from. 
the one above it. If you say, “Set with 2-point lead,” you would 
mean that between each line you would want a strip of lead 1-36 of 
an inch thick. If you did not want the type thus spread out in length, 
then it would be set “solid,” which would mean that the bottom 
of one type would rest right on top of the type in the line below, 
with no space between the two. 


In getting type set, you have the choice of three main methods. 
Either you can select hand composition, or linotype, or monotype. 
The manual method permits of the greatest possible variety in the 
construction of the type composition. It is the most flexible way 
of setting display matter or reading matter. 


Reading matter, however, can be set more ‘economically by 
machine. Most newspapers in the ordinary running type of the 
news column, use linotype. By this method, each line of type is one 
solid piece of lead as wide as the width of the column. Naturally, 
then, ifa typographical error is made, the entire line must be thrown 
away and a new one “cast” in its place. 

By the monotype machine, each individual letter is a new type 
which has been particularly cast for that purpose. This machine 
uses a roll of paper, similar to that used for automatic piano-players. 
Into this paper a special machine—similar to a typewriter—has 
pricked a series of little holes. These holes each result in the in- 
dividual manufacture of that particular type, whether it be letter, 
punctuation mark, or figure. Virtually, then, the monotype makes 
type to order in the sequence necessary—and thus automatically sets 
up the type as it is needed. 


36 


CHAPTER XX 


What Are ‘“‘Layouts’’ and “Dummies”? ? 


The best way to learn the mechanical fundaments in regard to 
advertising is to visit an engraving plant, printing plant and litho- 
graphing plant. If you conquer all the main facts in connection with 
those processes, you will then have a working basis sufficient so that 
you can instruct your printer, artist, or engraver as to just what you 
want. That ought to be sufficient knowledge of printing details for 
any advertising man. 


At the same time, you should have a working information. As 
a rule, the printer is more apt to seek the artistic effect than he is 
to make the “layout” the most effective possible from an advertising 
standpoint. Asa result of this condition, you can do better as an 
advertiser, if you can specify to the printer just what you want. 


Your usual way to make known your desires would be by 
means of a “dummy,” as it is called, if it is a piece of printed mat- 
ter which you are having made up for you—or by means of a “lay- 
out,’ if it is an advertisement which you give to a publication for 
them to reproduce for inclusion in their finished printed form, 
whether it be magazine, newspaper or what-not. 


The “dummy” is simply a rough sample suggesting what you 
want. lf it is a booklet you desire, you should give the printer a 
dummy suggesting the stock to be used—comprising the number of 
pages which the booklet is to have. Likewise, this “dummy” should 
show the size and kind of binding you require. Throughout this 
“dummy” you would indicate, by sketch, where the illustrations 
should go. You should number these places and correspondingly 
number the backs of the engraving plates he is to use. As to the 
reading matter, you will figure out how many words, of the size of 
type which you want, can fit into a square inch. Thus you can 
designate how much matter will go on each “type”-page. 


A “type’-page is not a full page. It is that part of a full page 
which is to be covered with type. ‘Chus, if your dummy has a page 
6x9 inches, and if it has an inch-wide border of white space all the 
way around, then your “type’-page wi'l be 5x8 inches. 


If possible, you would paste into this so-called dummy, proofs 
of the cuts you propose to use. Also, you would indicate under the 
place for each, any wording you wish to use as captions. Then you 
would also designate what the headlines should be, writing them in 
on the dummy itself. As to the reading matter, you would simply 
make it clear where it should go. But you would make no attempt 
to embody it in your “dummy.” 


It is the same way in regard to a “layout.” If for a news- 
paper or magazine, your layout would be practically a map of the 
way you wanted the illustrations and type matter arranged. Any big 
headlines, you would probably sketch in on this map; and, if pos- 
sible, you would either paste in a proof of the cut, or, if you had the 


37 


cut handy, you would ink it on an ordinary rubber stamp pad and 
hammer an impression of it onto the layout, directly from the 
printing plate. The reading matter itself, you would simply attach 
to the layout—marking each piece so as to show without difficulty 
just where each paragraph should be inserted in the composition. 

Also, you would clearly indicate, both on the “layout” and on 
the sheets of reading matter, just what size and style of type the 
compositor should use. It is not necessary, as a rule, to specify 
these details very rigidly, for it is often desirable to permit the com- 
positor to use his own judgment—as long as this judgment harmo- 
nizes with the requirements of advertising effectiveness. 

As a rule, you will have to decide absolutely in regard to the 
paper stock to be used, in case it is a printing job. You will un- 
doubtedly have before you, a full sample-case, showing the different 
styles which are available. These little samples will also indicate 
in what size they are carried in stock and also the weight. The 
quotation will usually be on the basis of a ream, which is generally 
500 sheets, and the weight will usually mean the number of pounds 
that each ream weighs. 

You will have hundreds of different kinds of papers from which 
to choose and hundreds of different kinds of colors. You will have 
to select largely on the basis of the feeling and the looks. Of course, » 
there are all sorts of grades, from the cheapest newspaper stock, 
which is made of wood pulp, to the finest linen bonds, which are 
made from selected rags. All of them are sized. In other words, 
they have been treated with a substance that has tended to fill up 
the pores of the paper so that the ink will stay on the surface and 
not soak through. 

Paper, however, will always vary. in the quality of the sizing 
used. It will also vary large in another big point, namely—in cal- 
endaring. Calendaring means the ironing of the paper between 
heavy rollers. The usual surface obtained in this way is called 
“machine finish.” If treated with a little better care, it is sometimes 
called super-calendared. But even that does not give the paper a 
highly glossy surface. Therefore, your particular job may require 
an enameled stock, which means that the surface has been artificially 
finished with a coating of glue-like material. 

Of course, there are hundreds of special kinds of papers, includ- 
ing the antique and all the other dull finishes which lack gloss. Also, 
there are scores of different kinds of stocks which are designed par- 
ticularly for use as covers on booklets. Beyond these, there are the 
many cardboards for signs, mailing cards, tickets, etc., These are 
built of different layers of paper and each layer is called a “ply.” 
Thus, if a stock is said to be six-ply, it means that it is six layers of 
paper thick. When “point” is used to designate the thickness of 
stock, it does not mean the same unit of measurement as the “point” 
in type. A lithographic board of 125-point, for instance, would be 
only a fraction of an inch thick. 


38 


CHAPTER XXI 


A Few Printing Processes. 


After you have prepared your “dummy” and have determined 
on the kind of type and style of stock to be used, you must decide 
what kind of printing you desire. The usual process is to press 
the metal type and plates against the paper. In this the “form,” 
(which comprises the composition in combination with the plates), 
is left flat and is pressed against the stock in that way. Thus, this 
process is known.as the flat-bed or letter-press method. 

Of course, you have nothing to say as to the style of printing 
which will be given your layout of an advertisement for inclusion in 
a publication. You must be content with the process the publisher 
uses and with the colors he employs in the making of his printed 
product. 

With big newspapers, the process will be a modernized form 
of the letter-press method. In other words, the metal form from 
which the impression is to be made, will be transferred onto a ~ 
cylindrical metal mold. Therefore, the printing will be done from 
a roundea, instead of from a flat form. 

Usually, the ordinary letter-press style of printing is the kind 
yuu want, but when it comes to duplicating a piece of advertising 
by the hundreds of thousands, lithography may be the most 
economical method to use. As the term “litho” implies, the main 
feature of this science is a stone, onto which the picture and type 
matter are transferred. This stone then becomes the printing plate 
against which the paper is pressed. 

Lithographic stones are of a peculiar composition. Most of 
these are imported from Bavaria. By keeping the stone wet during 
the, printing process, all of its surface, except that which has been 
etched (by the transfer of picture and type) keeps damp and thereby 
repels the oily ink. Consequently, when the stone passes against 
the ink roller, only the surface which is to make an impression on 
the paper takes any of the ink, because the unetched part of the stone 
stays wet and refuses to take the ink. 

Lithography is cheapest on labels and such small multicolored 
pieces of printed matter which must be duplicated by the million. 
In these cases, the big stones can contain dozens of reproductions of 
the design for the label or whatver the subject may be. Therefore, 
a great big sheet can be printed in one impression. This, when cut 
up, wili furnish a hundred or more labels. 

If you will look at a piece of printed matter that has been done 
by lithography, you will notice a little cross. This is what is called 
the register mark. It is simply there to make sure that the colors, 
which are put on in different impressions, are put on accurately. 
For instance, you have noticed how, in poor lithography, a human 
face will bear a flesh color which does not quite reach the edge, 
on one side, and which laps over beyond the outline of the face on 
the other side. This is what comes from inaccurate registering of 
the plates. 


39 


A new method, which is apparently gaining popularity with 
those who want distinctive printing, is called the “offset.” This is 
accomplished either through lithography or in regular printing. The 
idea is that the stone, or the printing form, makes its impression ona 
sort of a rubber blanket, which, in turn, makes its impression on the 
paper. The result is a very soft effect which resembles a watered- 
silk. | 

The offset process also makes possible the use of rough papers 
to take the finest screen half-tones. The reason for this is that 
the rubber blanket, in making its impression on the paper, will min- 
utely conform to all the microscopic crevices in the paper, no matter 
how rough, whereas the half-tone plate, itself—being not pliable— 
would only impress its likeness on the high spots or up-standing 
parts of the rough surface. 


CGHAP DER XXII 


What Kind of Engravings Are There? 


Of engraving-plates, the zinc-etching is the simplest. This is 
like a half-tone, except that in the “zinc” there is no “screen” be- 
tween the copy and the sensitized metal plate. This sensitized 
plate, like a photographic film, simply records the “copy,” which, in 
the case of a “zinc,” is simply black and white—such as crayon- 
drawing, or pen-and-ink on white. Such art-work, in general, is 
classed as “line-drawing.”’ 

Since the “zinc’-making process uses no screen, such as the 
half-tone does, the zinc cannot reproduce photographs. Yet, the 
very smallest black-and-white type matter, for instance, can be 
minutely reproduced on a zinc-etching. If a photographic subject 
or something of that kind has to be put into a zinc engraving, then 
the “copy” must first be changed into the plain black-and-white by 
being made over into a pen-and-ink or line-drawing. Naturally, 
plain zinc etchings are, as a rule, the best Kind for newspaper impres- 
sion, because they do not have to depend upon the smoothness of the 
printing stock for faithful impression. 

Sometimes, if you want either an unusually sharp reproduction 
or else a reproduction which is obviously different, you may want 
to use a “wood-cut”—particularly if the subject to be treated is an 
engine or some other mechanical work. Such wood-cuts are quite 
like zinc-etchings, except that they are of wood instead of metal. 
They have to be carved by hand rather than etched out by acid. The 
original wood-cut, itself, is seldom used. Duplicates are made from 
this original pattern plate. So, when it comes to the final printing, 
the wood-cut’s likeness is put on the paper through the intermediary 
of an etched metal, which is simply a duplicate of the wood engrav- 
ing. 

Electrotypes are also included under the general vernacular of 
“cuts.” They are neither original half-tones nor zinc-etchings. They 


40 


are simply “carbon copies,” as it were—simply duplicates. These 
“electros” are made by taking a wax impression of the original print- 
ing plate, whether it be a half-tone or zinc. Through a chemical 
process, the resultant mold becomes surfaced with a shell of copper. 
This shell of copper is then stiffened by being backed with lead. 
The result is a complete electrotype. 

You can readily tell an electrotype from the zinc pattern plate, 
in the fact that the electrotype has a copper face. You can readily 
tell an electrotype duplicate of an original half-tone pattern plate, by 
the fact that altho the “electro” has a copper face, it is of a lead-like 
metal beneath that—whereas the half-tone is copper clear through. 

When it is necessary quickly to duplicate type matter and 
plates, such as are used in the newspapers, the stereotyping process 
is used. This means that a blotter-like substance, called a matrix, 
is pressed down on the surface of the metal type-form, which com- 
bines composition and cuts. As a result, there is an impression on 
this blotter-like substance—the “matrix.” Lead is then poured over 
this matrix. It, of course, conforms to its blotter-like mold (the 
matrix), which is simply an impression taken from the original type- 
form. This lead thus cast in this matrix mold becomes a “stereo- 
type.’ This is a solid plate, usually of lead, whose surface is an ab- 
solute duplicate of the original composition and cuts. 

Stereotypes are used in newspapers because the printing speed 
necessarily demands a rotary press. Ona revolving press, it would 
be impossible to use an assembled form of individual type and plates. 
No matter how well locked together such might be, they would fly 
apart when running at the rate of speed necessary in the publication 
of a big newspaper. So, it is necessary to make each page one big 
leaden-cylinder. Hence, the stereotype process. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


A Few Points About Half-Tones. 


Engravings, as a rule, are indiscriminately referred to as “cuts,” 
whether they be half-tones or zinc-etchings or what-not. Half-tone 
engravings are probably the most used. ‘These are the kind that 
look like photographs. They must be made either from photographs 
or wash drawings. They are of greatest value in photographic re- 
production. 

A half-tone is so called because it permits not only of a black 
and white (such as, for instance, ordinary reading type-matter al- 
lows), but it also makes possible an intermediate tone between the 
black and white— in other words, a gray. In fact, the half-tone pre- 
sents many different shades of gray. In that way, it accomplishes 
photographic reproduction, 

You can readily understand how a black impression can be 
made on a sheet of paper, and how not printing anything on certain 
portions of white paper, will leave a white space. But as to how 


41 


the half-tone, with the same metal surface, prints black here, and 
gray right above—that is the puzzle. 

The half-tone is made from a sensitized plate. They put a 
screen between this sensitized plate, which is in the camera, and the 
“copy’—that is the photograph or wash-drawing, which is to be re- 
produced. This screen is simply a piece of glass divided by many 
diagonal lines running from upper left to lower right, which lines 
are intersected by a similar set of lines running from lower left to 
upper right. Thus, you see, these lines divide the screen into little 
diamond shaped “islands.” In other words, the lines would hide from 
the sensitized plate corresponding lines on the copy. And would 
expose to the sensitized plate the little parts of the “copy” which 
could “peek” through the little open “islands” between the inter- 
secting lines of the screen between the plate and the picture. 

So, the balance of the surface of the “copy”, the clear spaces be- 
tween the intersecting lines, would reach the sensitized plate and 
thereon would record themselves. And so, if you look at a half-tone-- 
through a microscope, you will see that it is made up of thousands 
of little ‘““‘pimple-like” bumps—and, that there are thousands of little 
valleys dug out from the surface. These little valleys correspond 
to the lines of that screen which was interposed between the copy and 
the sensitized plate during the exposure. 

For the sake of visualization, just suppose that these little 
bumps on the plates are mountains, and the little lines are depres- 
sions which we may call valleys. Here, for instance, is a spot on 
the plate which will reproduce the black hair of a man’s head. At 
‘this point, the little valleys are very, very narrow and the tops of the 
little mountains are stubby and broad. Over yonder there is a part 
which is to reproduce the light gray of an overcoat. Here we find 
that the open spaces of the valleys are wider and the tops of the 
mountains are proportionately thinner. It is these mountain tops 
which touch the paper; and if these are thin, they leave but a little 
spot of ink. If they are thick, they leave a big spot of ink. The lat- 
ter, of course, would be darker than the former. 

That explains how half-tones make possible variations in the 
shades of grays and blacks. As a rule, these are made of copper 
metal, although sometimes they may be of zinc. 

Engraving plates are “blocked” or “unblocked,” according to 
whether there is a wooden base to which the metal face is tacked. 
This wooden base is of sufficient thickness so as to make the print- 
ing surface exactly as deep as the ordinary type. 

Half-tones are divided into three main divisions, according to 
the way in which they are finished. If they are simply square- 
cornered, like an ordinary photograph, they are called square half- 
tones. If they are “outlined’’—if the background is cut away—then 
they are called silhouette half-tones. If the background im- 
mediately surrounding the objects, gradually fades off from a clear 
impression to haziness, and finally into nothing—then the half-tone 
is said to have a “vignetted” finish. 

Half-tones are also divided as to screens—in other words, as to 
coarseness or fineness. A coarse half-tone is usually of about 60- 
screen, so-called. This refers to those diagonal lines which ran 
parallel across the “screen” which was originally placed between 


42 


the “copy” and the sensitized plate at the time the negative was 
taken. In a coarse half-tone, these lines may be so far apart that 
there are 60 of them to an inch. When they are closer, the half- 
tone is therefore finer. They may be so close that 200 of them, side 
by side, will measure only an inch in width. 

The coarse-screen half-tone, namely that of around “60-screen” 
is the only kind that is usually feasible for ordinary newspapers, 
because the surface of the newspaper is often so uneven that a fine- 
screen half-tone of a 100-screen or finer, would blur and blot. On 
fine surfaced papers, however, such as magazines and books, the 
half-tone of about 133-screen is the best to use. 


CLT OR TH RCE 


First Analysis By Retail Advertiser. 


With a working knowledge of the mechanics of advertising, the 
problem begins to become specific. As to how you should advertise 
depends upon whether your business is retail and local—or wholesale 
and national. Even if it is the latter, you must nevertheless know 
something of the retail problem. Therefore, this localized phase is 
fundamental to any advertising plan. | 

There are about-‘two million retail stores in the United States. 
Many of them are general, but hundreds of thousands of them are 
special. Many are the result of accident. Others have been planned 
even to the extent of their being part of a chain of nearly a thousand 
stores, such as, for example, the 5c and 10c syndicates. 

Usually a store’s “product”—or, that is, its merchandise—is 
the result of the kind of patronage which the store enjoys. The 
dealer keeps what his trade wants, and what his trade wants often 
depends upon the location, which factor, in turn, determines what 
kind of people come into his store. 

There are nearly a million “neighborhood” stores—little grocery 
stores, and corner candy stores, for instance. Their best advertise- 
ing is probably the hand-bill which their boys distribute through the 
neighborhood on Friday to announce special “bargains” for Satur- 
days. Such advertising, plus a clean store and courteous treatment 
are the first trade-attractors for such merchants. 

But, if such a dealer desires to grow into a city-wide grocery 
store, or, to duplicate his store by the establishment of others here 
and there throughout the city, then he must study advertising. He 
must find out what his “product” is, namely what his goods are—and 
to whom these goods will appeal. This investigation will determine 
where he shall locate his stores, and, also, what kind of a merchandis- 
ing policy he shall employ. 

You may need advertising, even if you do not seek any such 
multiplication of business. Advertising, as a subject, should interest 
every local dealer. For, though usually an aggressive phase of his 
business, advertising may be a necessary defense. This is particular- 
ly true of the smaller communities, where, all the time, more and 


43 


more, mail-order houses are fighting for foot-holds, and wielding 
their wonderful weapons of publicity. 

If these distant mercantile institutions do get the trade, it is be- 
cause they know how to advertise. They wouldn’t do business if 
they didn’t. It is their presentation of picture-and-price which starts 
the orders through the mails to such an extent that the letters re- 
ceived by such a house keeps many trucks busy every day— 
just to carry the mail from the postoffice to the office building. 

So if you are a local dealer, against whom the mail-order Titans 
compete, and you don’t advertise at all, or if your advertising is ill- 
timed, hackneyed, and uninteresting, then Mr. Local Advertiser, you 
had better look out! 

But before you advertise, analyze. Analysis is the best way to 
find out anything. First, analyze the kind of store you have. Is it 
high-grade? Does it have its appeal through quality? Or is it 
popular because you can offer prices? If it is the exclusive kind, 
then you have but a small part of the population as your possible 
prospects. If your trade is built on bargains, then the majority of 
the rank-and-file are potential customers. In such a case, the bigger 
your business, the greater your gains, for even though you make but 
little on each sale, you can depend upon volume of business for your 
profit. 

To determine what class of trade to go after, you should know 
the statistics in regard to your community. For instance, you should 
know that in the ordinary town of half a million, over one-third of 
the population have an income of less than $20.00 a week per family. 
So, if you go after that less than $20.00-per-week kind of trade, 
you may have a lot of customers. But, your sales will mostly be of 
the necessities of life. You must talk to such people plainly. You 
cannot whisper to them in any French similes. You must speak 
right out in good, plain English. And, to get them to come into 
your store, you cannot rely on any elusive atmosphere of style. Your 
argument must tingle with economy, durability, and dollar-and-cent 
quality. 

If you know who your possible customers are, and if you know 
what you have to offer them, the next analysis brings you to the 
question of how to bring the people to your goods. In other words, 
you must find out how to get the desire for your goods into the hearts 
of your prospects in the quickest and most economical way. 


CHAPTER RAY. 


Further Preliminary Retail Analysis. 


Of all the possible natural virtues in a retailer’s advertising, 
that of timeliness is about the greatest aid to success. Timeliness 
can, also, be created. For instance, if you were to find that a store 
in-a neighboring city had burned up, you could arrange for a sale 
of the remaining goods, and in that way cash in on the element of 
timeliness for fair. 


44 


This kind of strategy is somewhat artificial, yet as in the case 
of sales of bought-up bankrupt stocks, this application of the timeli- 
ness appeal often has a sound basis in the fact that in this way ex- 
ceptional merchandise-values are really made possible. 

As a retail dealer, you must also analyze your goods from the 
standpoint of their advertising appeal. Most things which you will 
advertise will have their appeal simply in that they are less in price 
—either less than they were, or less than they are usually offered at 
in other stores. ? 

But many things will have to be presented in an explanatory 
way. In that case the points of appeal will have to be studied and 
analyzed. 


Some carry such analysis to a considerable extent, especially 
in connection with certain tobacco products, on which the national 
advertiser spends hundreds of thousands per year for advertising. 
In fact, it is very seldom that a food-product is put on the market 
without a preliminary chart to fix the points of its appeal. 


Sometimes you can pick out just the right appeal and make a 
success of an advertising campaign which otherwise would fail. For 
instance, there is the story of the piano store out West. Business 
was dull. The proprietor advertised slashes in prices, contests, and 
all that sort of thing, apparently without success. Finally he hit 
upon a new idea. He made the theme of his advertising “Keep the 
young folks at home.” This set the mothers and the fathers in the 
vicinity to thinking. Here was a vital reason why they should buy 
a piano. Business came fast as a result. 


“How much shall I spend?” is the biggest problem that con- 
fronts the retail advertiser. A big department store can afford to 
spend from two to three per cent. of its gross income. Experiment 
and experience prove that such appropriations usually bring about 
the maximum of efficiency. Some department stores, however, 
have to spend much more than others. For instance, in a certain 
coast city, the owners of one big institution have found that, on an 
average, their advertising has brought in about $100 worth of busi- 
ness for every inch of newspaper space they have used, whereas 
another similiar institution in the same State got $60 worth of busi- 
nss for each unit inch of space. 

Experiment is the only teacher a store can get to acquire this 
knowledge of how much to spend. Your solution depends largely 
on what Kind of a store yours is. If it is an exclusive specialty store, 
which bases its appeal on style, yet does business in the same way as 
a big department store, then your best advertising would be to have 
a location next to a big department store so as to make the smart- 
ness of its window display divert trade your way. But you would 
also have to use a fairly large ad now and then to suggest the superi- 
or-style and a lower-price which your specialization is supposed to 
accomplish. 

On the other hand, if your specialty store’s appeal is wider—if, 
for instance, you do a credit clothing business, then a greater volume 
is possible. And such a store, since it has a popular appeal, can 
afford to advertise much more extensively that the other of more 
limited patronage. 


45 


CHAPTER XXVI 


How Conditions Decide Details for Retailer. 


You have almost got to advertise if you are in a retail business. 
How else can you get business? It is rather impossible for you as 
a retailer to go out and drum up trade through salesmanship. ‘There- 
fore, you have to attract people to your store. Advertising is about 
the only known way to accomplish that end.. 

Then comes the question: How to advertise? How to advertise 
depends largely on how much money you have to spend. For in- 
stance, if yours is a little store on a side street, you may advertise 
quite effectively by using the Want Ad columns of a local paper. 

You can afford to spend only a certain proportion of the amount 
of business that it is possible for you to get. It would be ridiculous 
for you as a small side-street merchant to try to get a large ad in 
the ordinary display columns of a big newspaper. Yet, you can get 
as much business as you can take care of if you use the Want Ads 
judiciously. 

So, of course, it depends on what kind of a store yours may 
be. That in turn largely depends on your location. Likewise the 
location and size of store, and other limitations are frequently fixed 
by a man’s business ability, but above all by his resources. 

Owing to the fact that the average retail advertiser has to pay 
today’s expenses out of today’s receipts, retail advertising is usually 
of the action-advertising kind. It aims to create a flavor—an at- 
mosphere in favor of the store, but above all it seeks to make today’s 
advertising pay for itself in tomorrow’s sales. Therefore, to sell is 
the main aim in retail advertising. 

And yet, that selling has to be accomplished in a careful way. 
Your store could increase its business materially if you used ex- 
aggeration in your ads. But, you could do it for only a few days, 
or for a few weeks. For, at the end of that time, you would prob- 
ably either have to change your store’s name, or move. Meanwhile, 
at first each dollar spent in the newspaper might seem to pull good 
response. But gradually, people would discover your-deceit, and as 
time went on, instead of a dollar’s worth of advertising attracting 
¢50 worth of business, it would bring continually decreasing returns. 
Such a condition would spell “business-toboggan” for any retail 
merchant. 

Yet, the retail store depends for its success on the cumulative 
result that comes from the fact that the customer of today gets 
some one else as an additional customer for tomorrow. Therefore, 
in this action-advertising, although your primary aim is to sell, you 
must always temper your copy by the understanding that your 
success must be built on the favorable atmosphere that comes from 
honest advertising. 

In other words, part of the value of your advertising must con- 
sist of cumulative publicity, or whatever you wish to call it, which 
incidentally results from the selling effectiveness of your copy. 

Most retail advertising has to be done on price. There are 
some exceptions, of course, but the department store—even the 


46 


finest—and the grocery store, and almost every other store, has to 
sell on price. But price is value, in the final analysis—for it is quality 
as compared to price. Yet, the big emphasis has to be on price. 
That is why it is so hard for the advertiser to get both selling quality 
into his “copy” and also, that faith-making note which tends to 
build up his business in a cumulative way. 


CEAPT ERY xc Tt 


Is Price Necessary in Retail Advertising ° 


Action-advertising almost always means emphasis of price. 
The bargain is usually the thing that makes people come into the 
store tomorrow in response to your ad of today. 

In the first place, your possible customers, even the wealthy, 
possess a bargain-instinct. Human beings seek the thing that can 
be had “for less.” For that reason the ad that is full of prices is 
most likely to be read. The very possibility of an interesting bar- 
gain causes people to give such advertising a voluntary interest. 

So much for the attention-value of price. Price also is the best 
incentive to action. If you spread-eagled through many pages 
about the quality of your goods, you would not get as much direct 
result as with less space devoted to a 1-2-3 description of values. 
Why should I come into your store tomorrow, if I simply know your 
goods are good? I can come in the next day just as well. But if 
you advertise a bargain—well, that’s different. That particular 
lot of goods may all be sold out by tomorrow afternoon. Therefore, 
I had better come in tomorrow morning. That is why price is the 
feature of most actionful-advertising. 

Now and then you find departures from this general principle 
that retail advertising must be done through price announcements. 
If yours is a “class” store—such as an exclusive furniture store, you 
may ignore price. In this case, your business would be compara- 
tively small. Therefore, you might not need to use the price appeal. 
But, a store which seeks a universal business—such as a general 
hardware store, which tries to win trade in the East, North, South 
and West side of the community—such a store can hardly get 
along without the price-appeal. 

At least that is the rule. One big store of this kind recently 
tried to prove that this principle is wrong. They sought to establish 
a theory that people do not want prices and that they seek simply 
the knowledge that the goods can be had at a fair price. So this 
concern quit the newspapers and put their messages on outdoor 
painted bulletin boards. One sign announced that for kitchen uten- 
sils, here was the place. Another specialized on cut glass, etc. 

The idea was simply that these announcements to the people, 
telling what could be had at that store (at “reasonable prices”)— 
such announcements were supposed to bring as much trade to the 
store as if they advertised price. But alas, this experimenter had to 
get back into the newspapers. Now they are trying to make their 


47 


newspaper story carry that same kind of a message. But such a 
message has little appeal—it has no appeal. For such does not 
persuade—it simply advises. It is merely an announcement that: 
“We are doing business, and we are handling merchandise and we 
think we won’t over-charge you.” 

But, as a rule, no matter where you look in retail business, or 
in any business, that touches the consumer, price is (nine times out 
of ten) the appeal that wins. There has to be real service along 
with price. Very few stores, however, can sell on service entirely. 
Some, such as a high-class florist, can—or perhaps a high-grade 
jeweler. But, most stores must win their patrons on the ground 
that customers can save money if they buy from that particular store. 

In the matter of “copy,” the necessity for price-emphasis, may 
carry the copy-writer into a danger—he is apt to make the ad a 
veritable price-list. That may do in the advertising of a chain- 
grocery store which simply says “Uneeda Biscuits at 3c Ib.,” and 
soon. Such cases may simply record cut-prices and win out. But, 
as a rule, the advertiser who keeps away from that catalogue style 
and puts into his price argument a further appeal, based on quality 
or utility—that kind of an advertiser is apt to win out better than 
the other man who simply lists his prices. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 
Should Retail ‘“Copy’’ Scatter or Concentrate ? 


Between the kind of retail advertising which simply lists a lot 
of prices, and the style which devotes itself exclusively to a single 
article, there is a golden mean. ‘This is the kind which comprises 
many items, yet gives each item a bull’s-eye, a concentration, just as 
if it were a unit-ad in itself. All these units are harmonized under 
one theme, and the entire ad is a harmonious whole. 

The best example of this is the advertising of the Hengerer 
Company of Buffalo. This store is part of the chain of depart- 
mental institutions known as the Claflin-McCreery combination. 
The managers of that syndicate would like to get others of the com- 
ponent stores to emulate this “Hengerer copy,’ which was con- 
ceived and created by C. E. Brett, when advertising manager. He 
is now vice-president and manager. 

This kind of “copy” unifies the message. It tells one thing at 
a time. In all, it may cover fifty different things, but each one of 
these is made a separate rifle shot. Each item is blocked off in a 
pretty and effective way. This makes it easy for the eye to scan 
the ad and find out what will interest. And, when the eye does 
stop at something that appeals, you get more than just the price. 
You get a persuasion which will tend to create desire and make you 
want to buy whether you had expected to or not. 

On the other hand, for the “specialty” store—those which 
specialize on haberdashery or men’s apparel, or those which special- 
ize on women’s apparel, or those which specialize on high-class 


48 


furniture—for such stores it seems to have been proved that the 
best kind of “copy” is the kind that talks about one thing and covers 
it fully. For, the main appeal of a store like that must be service, 
or style, or class, or something other than price. 

That is why, if you have to advertise such a store, it may be 
best to centralize the entire ad on one specific thing. For instance, 
suppose you pick out one piece of fine furniture, as one successful 
specialty-merchant does. He shows a picture of a chair and de- 
scribes its exquisite beauty and fine workmanship. For him, that 
is the best way to get trade. It's logical. The price of so exquisite 
a chair would not catch those to whom that class of goods would 
appeal. Such folk would be far more likely to be impressed by an 
argument of style or prestige, or artistic origin, than they would by 
dollar-saving. And so, in exclusive specialty-store advertising, 
unification of copy may be best—even to the extent of making one 
ad speak of only one thing. 

Of course, there are a lot of other retail advertisers beside the 
departmental institutions and the specialty stores. Automobile 
agencies, for instance, would come under the retail class, although 
really, their advertising is simply localized national advertising. 
Insurance offices would come whder the retail advertising class. 
Dairy companies, and other organizations of that kind, are also in 
this category. But with most of these there is no problem as to 
_whether to include many, few or only one item in their advertising 
“copy.” With most of such, it pays to concentrate, for their appeal 
must be such as requires persuasive presentation, in addition to 
price-argument. 


CHAPTER XXIX 


How Much Should a Retailer Spend ? 


This problem of how much to spend is all-important. Of 
course, the answer must depend upon the kind of store and the class 
of clientele. It must also depend on the volume of business and 
margin of profit. 

In a specialty store, for instance, it is not too much to appro- 
priate 5% for advertising, based on the total volume of sales. For 
instance, suppose you had a store doing $100,000 worth of business 
per year in a specialty line. You could well afford to pay $5000 a 
year for advertising. And if you were doing half a million, you 
could afford to pay $25,000 a year for advertising. This principle 
covers all specialty stores in furniture and in women’s apparel. Also 
it holds true in regard to installment houses. 

But when you come to groceries, there the advertising could 
not be 5%. The margin is so small that 5% expense in advertising 
would probably cause the year to show a loss rather than a profit. 
In fact, the usual big grocery retailer who does seek to reach the 
public through newspaper advertising, has to keep his advertising 
appropriation down around 2 or 21%4%. So, if he does $100,000 


4 49 


worth of business, his advertising would probably cost $2000. or 
$2500. 

This, however, may vary, even with grocery stores, if they have 
other departments in connection with them which will yield suffi- 
cient profit to warrant an additional advertising expense. A store 
which deals in liquors and drugs in addition to groceries, may be 
able to spend 3 to 4% on advertising, while a big store selling only 
groceries might not. The reason is that the profit on liquors and 
drugs is great enough to swallow up some of the expense involved 
in the extra advertising of the store which carries that long-margin 
merchandise in addition to groceries. 

The healthiest sign in connection with any retail store is an 
increase in business and a decrease in advertising expense. The 
proportionate advertising expense may decrease as the volume of 
business increases—if the advertising has both selling-value and also 
that subtler value of confidence-creation which builds up a clientele. 
This is illustrated by the fact that in one city, a department store 
was doing $3,000,000 worth of business on an expenditure of 24%. 
The “copy” was written by a certain advertising manager, who 
changed his position. He went down the street to another depart- 
ment store which had to spend 4% of its revenue on advertising. 
But this department store No. 2 continued to spend 4%, even though 
‘the advertising was now directed by that same man who had been 
able to get the business for the other store on an expenditure of 
214%. ‘The reason was that the public had more faith in the an- 
nouncements of store No. 1. Gia each inch of space pulled 
more trade than did that of store No. 2. And, so, though No. 1 
used more advertising than No. 2, the expense on a percentage basis 
was only 214% in the first case and 4% in the other. 


CHAP TER Ae 


Increased Retail Results At Decreased Cost. 


And so, a retailer can continually get more business with pro- 
portionately less advertising expense, provided his copy is the kind 
that breeds confidence and thus creates a clientele. 

But, if a merchant has not succeeded in building up a following 
—a patronage of people who automatically come to his store for 
their needs, (whether they come as a result of an advertised bargain 
or not)—then this volume of business is apt to be entirely dependent 
on his advertising. Therefore the volume would be proportionately 
‘smaller, of course, than if he also had that cumulative patronage. 

Such is the misfortune of the store that has fallen into exagger- 
ation. You will find this to be true in many cities and towns. And, 
often, you can see a pretty tragic sight in the form of a store which 
used to lead, but which is now a second-rater—and for no other 
reason except that its advertising has been bad. 

Most states in this country now have laws which make it civil 
‘misdemeanor to put anything fraudulent into advertising. Several 


50 


stores have been prosecuted for statements that certain things 
offered for sale were worth more than they really were. One big 
store last spring was prosecuted and its manager was arrested be- 
cause they advertised a piano for $125 which they said was worth 
$250. Experts proved in court that it was not worth $250. 


Yes, there is a legal danger in the use of exaggeration in adver- 
tising, outside of the matter of ethical honesty. But the danger goes 
farther than either of those factors. The big, terrible peril is that 
ten years from now a business may go to smash, simply because of 
the exaggeration that that merchant allows in his advertising today. 

This undermining process which exaggeration causes, is subtle. 
It is indirect. It is slow to take visible form. Public suspicion, or 
worse, gradually results from such untruthful “copy.” This takes 
patronage away from the store. The merchant may go on for a 
long time and seem to get more business. But, the biggest com- 
munity is so small that, eventually, that kind of policy will prove 
suicidal. People compare notes—soon the tide turns against the 
store. 

But most stores through their honesty in advertising have 
piled up a patronage which insures them a permanent success, and 
which cuts down their advertising costs. There is a concern in 
Indiana doing a business of between six and seven million dollars a 
year on an advertising expenditure of a little over 1%. That is 
possible only because of the fact that for years they have been 
proving to their people that every item in their ads is honest. 


Of course, this is all just common-sense. Merchants—real 
modern merchants—now-a-days keep clear of old-time circus methods 
of exaggeration. They know too well, this rigid principle of retail 
advertising. They know that if they lie in the slightest degree, 
their advertising will pull less and less as the years go on. 


This question of clientele and its effect on the cost of adver- 
tising, gets down to so fine a point in some cases that it baffles. 
There is one instance where two stores with the same resources, 
with almost the same location, with practically equivalent manage- 
ment, are absolutely different in their advertising effectiveness. 
One can get almost twice as much business from the same amount of 
advertising as the other store can. This probably has its cause in the 
distant past, when the latter was not as much of a stickler for the 
truth as was the former. 


CHAPTER XXXI 


Purpose and Position of Retail Ads. 


After a retailer has decided how much he ought to appropriate 
for his advertising, he is then up against the question: “What par- 
ticular purpose do I wish my advertising to fulfill?” 

The retail advertiser takes his advertising seriously. He real- 
izes how much it costs. He appreciates that it is the only way to 


ol 


increase his business. And—yet, the average retailer pays too little 
attention to his advertising. 

Why? The answer is as usual—‘Human Nature,” as mani- 
fested in the fact that it is easier to buy than to sell. You, or any 
other human being, would rather sit in an office and have a sales- 
man try to get you to buy something, than you would to sit down 
and work out some method of making people, through ink and 
paper, feel that they ought to come and buy something from you. 

And so, the usual retailer is apt to be just a “buyer.” Of 
course, he has to buy his merchandise right, so as to give proper 
value. Still, if he also paid keen attention to the sales-development 
of his business—to the advertising phase of his business—then his 
business would progress with greater strides. 

No matter what values you have to offer, if people don’t know 
about them, they are worthless. No matter how desirable your 
goods may be, if you don’t create desire in favor of those goods, 
you fall short. i fay 

Despite the acknowledged importance of advertising, to a re- 
tailer, newspapers sometimes find that specialty store people who 
spend a couple of thousand a year in advertising, are apt to write 
their ads in five minutes “while the boy waits.” Some of them hand 
in ads to occupy a foot square, which are stretched out on the back 
of a calling card. If they only realized how much more they could 
get from their money if they spent some time and analyzed their 
problem, there would be a lot more retail advertising. And the big- 
gest analysis, or rather the first analysis, is this question of the 
purpose of their advertising. 

Of course, the general purpose is to get people into the store. 
That is every retail advertiser’s purpose. But the aim may be more 
specifically to get people to buy—or to get people to look, or to 
get people into the store tomorrow, or to get them into the store the 
next time they are in the market for that special kind of merchandise. 

Yet, there are some retailers who so clearly visualize the pur- 
pose of their advertising, that they go so far as to have their adver- 
tisements set up by their own printers. For instance, there is one 
store which seeks to radicate an atmosphere of artistic distinctive- 
ness. Although the typography in the newspapers they use is as 
good as can be had, still this advertiser spends an extra $10.00 or 
so every time he renews an ad, for, in order to get the prettiest 
border and the most fetching kind of type, and the classiest possible 
taste into his store announcements, he has his own printer compose 
the type and turn the completed form over to the newspaper. 

When it comes to the question of the purpose of your adver- 
tising, you have to decide another very important detail—that of 
“position.” A specialty store particularly, as a rule, appeals to 
either men or women, or to some certain class. Such advertisers 
have to choose where, in that newspaper, their ad will do the most 
good. A haberdasher, for instance, may want to be on the sport- 
ing page. A department store may put one little ad opposite the 
woman’s or the society page, and then place their entire ad wherever 
they can. The little ad on the social page calls attention to their 
main announcement on the subsequent page. Some big stores be- 
lieve in this method so thoroughly, that quite often they will have 


52 


their general ad on the back page of the newspaper and their par- 
ticular items, referring to women’s garments and so on, on the 
women’s page, while ads of the men’s garments will be on the 
men’s page—all in one edition. 

Perhaps your business can’t stand an ordinary advertising ex- 
penditure. You may want to use the Want Ads. In this phase, 
too, attention to positions may pay. You should be careful to 
select the proper classification. 

Even the small merchant in the country, unconsciously pays a 
lot of attention to position. You will see in almost any weekly 
paper of towns of less than 10,000, little items in regard to the bar- 
gains at the local store, interspersed among the local news para- 
graphs. Sometimes these are put in among the personals, and 
sometimes among bits of local news that are not merely personals. 
Such advertising frequently costs more than the usual rate. In 
other words, in the usual small paper where the regular inch rate 
may be 15c or 10c, the rate for these local items would figure up to 
380c or 60c per inch. And position is the reason why the local ad- 
vertiser uses those expensive little local lines instead of regular dis- 
play space. 


CARVER XXOXTE 


Retail Advertising By Other Than Newspapers. 


Of course, there are other kinds of advertising that the retailer 
may do other than newspaper. The circular is quite often used, 
although as a rule, it is very hard to make this kind of “direct” 
advertising pay. As compared with the newspaper, the circular 
costs so much to print and mail that it is almost impossible to make 
the result a profit. The newspaper will reach a thousand people at 
approximately less than a cent per line. The circular cannot reach 
one thousand people for under $15.00. 

Here again it depends on the kind of merchandise which you 
have to advertise. If yours is a high-priced specialty with a keen 
appeal to a certain class, then you may be able to pick out that 
cream as a mailing list. In such a case, the goods sold might yield 
you so much margin of profit that the circular might more than 
pay for itself. 

But, for a business which tries to get its volume universally 
from all classes of people and which works on a limited margin of 
profit, it is hardly possible to use the expensive circular for its 
general attraction of trade. 

And yet, the very biggest merchants use “direct” advertising— 
but always as a secondary method—merely to reinforce the news- 
paper advertising. For instance, an ordinary department store may 
have a mailing list of 50,000. With electric addressing machines, 
and. mechanical folding devices, it is possible to put out circulars 
to all these customers. But such a store very seldom does this, 


53 


except as a supplement to a newspaper campaign in connection 
with a certain sale. 


Usually the large stores have long lists of charge customers 
and to each of whom they must send monthly statements anyway. 
In such cases, of course, any circulars they may enclose in the en- 
velopes are apt to pay for themselves, because there is uo special 
expense for postage. That kind of circular always pays. 


Many retailers try to advertise with odd novelties, specialties 
and souvenirs. Unlike the newspaper, these, of course, are not 
supposed to sell anything. They seldom get direct returns which 
will pay for their expense within a very short time. ‘They cre 
simply meant as builders of an atmosphere, or whatever it is, in 
favor of the merchant who must pay tor them. They do not yield 
immediate sales as newspapers do. Nor do they even build up 
that favorable publicity which they are claimed to. create. Yet 
their cost-per-person-reached is greater by far than the mast ex- 
pensive newspaper. 


There is no question that there is only one sure medium for 
the retail advertiser who is big enough to serve a community-wide 
trade—and that certainly is the newspaper. If the advertiser is so 
localized that he can only serve people around his particular neigh- 
borhood, then the circular distributed by the boy after school may 
be best. But if he is, or can become, of sufficient size so that he 
can make a bid for business almost anywhere in his community, 
then the newspaper is the medium, first, last and always. 


CHAPTER XXXIIIT 


Why the Retailer Chooses Newspapers. 


There are many reasons why the newspaper is the retailer’s 
first choice. For one thing, the newspaper enjoys a home interest. 
Particularly, it has a personal interest—it deals with things so local 
as to be intimate to every reader. It may be simply through the 
fact that the newspaper tells of the city government, to which the 
reader pays taxes, or it may be through the fact that it records the 
demolition of a building which the reader has passed by day in and 
day out. Anyway, all the time, the newspaper narrates things of 
far keener interest than any other medium can offer the reader. 


The newspaper has an ever fresh appeal. It quickens the 
reader’s interest every day, if it be a daily, or every week, if it be a 
weekly. It always offers something new—really new. And so, if 
you get a magazine and a newspaper in the same mail in the morn- 
ing, you are a lot more likely to look at the newspaper first. You 
are keen to find what has happened since your last news-perusal. 
That fact helps to make retail advertising in the newspapers so suc- 
cessful, and therefore makes the newspaper the best place for retail 
adevrtising. 


54 


For instance, observe the attempt of a certain store to do with- 
out the newspaper. On the bulletin board they seek to advertise a 
certain kind of shoe. You may pass this every day—twice a day. 
Yet you will really see it about once every three months—and, pos- 
sibly you might not consciously see it even then. That sign does 
not have any fresh appeal. You may know that it is there. But, 
after your first attention, it fails to open up your mind again, so 
as to shoot in another stimulus, it possesses nothing new enough, or 
personal enough to attract your repeated attention. 


Retail advertising chooses the newspaper for another reason. 
A good newspaper is a sort of institution. Men would almost fight 
for their favorite newspapers. A paper may grip a person’s life as 
fervidly as a church. 


The majority of people owe nearly all they know, to their 
newspaper. As a result, the newspaper has a hold on a com- 
munity, whether the community knows it or not. 


In a political campaign, a newspaper often shows its potential 
power. What the paper says carries weight—that is, if it is an 
honest newspaper. If it is not honest, then people do not believe 
in its arguments. No matter how clever or verbally forceful their 
assertions may be, such papers will not carry the weight, even 
though their circulation may be as big as any paper in town. 


| But a real paper with a time-tried reader-confidence, has the 
power to carry any message. That is why it can carry advertis- 
ing messages to the profit of the advertiser. 

Those facts quite often make the question of newspaper rates a 
hard puzzle. No one can arbitrarily say, for instance, that each 
thousand of circulation is worth a quarter of a cent per line, because 
it would not be worth that in some papers, whereas in others it 
might be worth half a cent a line or more—for some papers are al- 
most Bibles in the homes wherein they circulate. 


A moot question.in retail advertising is: “Shall I advertise in 
the morning or the afternoon papers?” This is one of the most elu- 
sive questions. It depends on the paper. One morning paper may 
actually go into more homes than any other paper in the com- 
munity. Therefore, it may reach more women. And yet, for the 
advertisment of something that would appeal to women, it might 
be argued that the evening paper is the one to use. The evening 
paper may claim that the housewife does not have time during the 
day to look at the morning paper, whereas she reads the evening 
paper in her leisure hours. But, here, too, any effort at a definite 
law is worthless. The principle to follow is simply that the best 
paper is the one which will give the greatest number of prospects at 
the lowest cost. 

Newspaper advertising not only enjoys the backing or the 
faith that readers are apt to have in their paper. There is another 
value—that of temperate atmosphere. As arule, cold type connotes 
conservatism of expression. A man might slander verbally, but to 
put that slander into print and make it libel—he would think more 
than twice before he did that. 

Words which are put into print are usually weighed carefully. 
People know that. And in that atmosphere, they are apt to in- 


55 | 


terpret newspaper advertising. This unconsciously makes a news- 
paper reader more susceptible to the retailer’s message, than if he 
sent that message to her in a fatherless leaflet stuffed under her 
door. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 


Store Conditions Help Decide Ad Questions. 


There are many store conditions which tend to determine a 
retailer’s advertising problems. For instance, it is quite essential 
to know whether to have your ad appear on Monday, or Wednes- 
day, or Friday, or when. : 

This question is always determined by the kind of store—by 
an analysis of the individual problem. If you are advertising bar- 
gains in competition with all the other stores in town, you _ will 
probably want your advertising to appear the day before the one 
which is most commonly regarded as “Bargain Day” in that town. 
In some cities, by common consent, Friday seems to be “Bargain 
Day.” Consequently, Thursday is a good time to advertise, if you 
offer bargains in general competition, because the shopping public 
will be down town that day and it is easier to get them to walk from 
some other store to yours than it is to persuade them to take the 
trouble to come all the way downtown just to look over the mer- 
chandise you advertise. | 

On the other hand, many advertisers might better choose days 
other than Thursday and Friday. Of course, your ad in a paper that 
has a thousand ads is apt to be less effective than if it were among 
fewer ads. Consequently, if you do not depend upon the Friday 
shopping crowd, perhaps you had better use the Saturday or Mon- 
day editions when the paper would have fewer ads against which 
yours, naturally, must compete—at least, for attention. 

There is no rule as to this point, either. It depends entirely 
on the particular store. In fact, many stores find it profitable to 
go into the papers on Sunday, and the theory is that tho there is a 
lot more advertising on that day, it is also true that people have 
more time to study over the advertising on Sundays. 

But, above all this, there is another point which should be ob- 
vious. <A retail advertiser can use the best kind of judgment as to 
where to place his advertising. He may accurately answer the 
question: “When is the best time to run my advertising?” He can 
use perfect “copy’—truthful, conservative and effective. And yet 
he may fail—yes, he is sure to fail if he does not give the service. 
For, what he has to sell is merchandise—and merchandise is value 
plus service. And if he falls down on either, he disappoints. This 
will lose him trade as fast as if he were to be untruthful in his ad- 
vertising. 

That is axiomatic. But there is one little point in connec- 
tion with retail newspaper advertising to which the wise retailer 
gives attention, more and more every day. That is the co-operation 


56 


on the part of the salespeople in the store. Formerly, the usual ad- 
vertiser would simply trust that the people in the store would see 
the store’s advertising in the papers. Now he makes his staff look 
at the announcements. 

The big retail advertisers today realize that efficiency de- 
mands that salespeople keep up with the stores advertising. In 
some stores, the management actually holds classes to explain the 
things offered, so that every employee will be intelligent when ap- 
proached by a customer who has come in as the result of the adver- 
tising. 

The sales person is about the biggest factor in advertising; in 
the last analysis. The vice-president of a nationally-known glove 
industry recently stated that in seven cases out of ten, the sales per- 
son determines what brand of glove a woman shall buy. Most 
people think that the actual public demand for this or that, is every- 
thing. But when it comes right down to it, the demand is largely 
in the sales person’s mind. This manufacturer told a story about a 
store in Detroit. The manager of the glove department said: “We 
can’t sell your brand—the demand is for such-and-such a glove.” 
The manufacturer asked him what he meant. 

“Why,” replied the buyer, “nine people out of ten who come 
in here for gloves ask for your competitor’s brand.” 

The manufacturer challenged the truth of the buyer’s conclu- 
sion. To test it out, they stood there and counted. Of the seven 
people who came in for gloves while he was there, not one of them 
asked for any particular brand. They all simply asked for “a pair 
of gloves” and the sales persons said: “You mean such-and-such a 
glove?’ In most cases, the customer said “yes.” 

So, that—that demand in the mind of the sales person was in- 
terpreted by the department manager as a real demand in the mind 
of the public. 

It follows, then, that this co-operation of the dealer’s sales- 
people is about ‘the biggest asset a manufacturer can get in his retail 
distribution—and, likewise, this same intro-mural co-operation is 
necessary to the dealer, if he is to make his advertising approach the 
ideal of efficiency. 


CHAP ER Ry xX XV 


Manufacturers’ Aid in Retail Advertising. 


Most methods of retail advertising cost money. But there are 
a good many things which the retail advertiser can get at no ex- 
pense to himself—namely, the helps which manufacturers offer. 
These may be window displays, or even circular letters which the 
manufacturer will get out and mail to the retailer’s customers in 
behalf of the retailer. 

Many manufacturers will supply the retailer with free booklets 
with the dealer’s name imprinted on the back. These advertise 
‘the manufacturer’s product which the retailer has on sale. Also, 


57 


nowadays manufacturers are even apt to furnish moving signs 
which cost from $10.00 to $30.00 apiece. These are loaned abso- 
lutely without charge to the dealer—and they certainly bring busi- 
ness to the dealer's store. 

The wise dealer can secure a good many of these helps and if, 
with these, he will use some newspaper advertising, he can build up 
a mighty good broadside in favor of his store. And yet, is this 
right for manufacturers who advertise in national magazines to ask 
the retailer to back up their national advertising with retail news- 
paper space of their own? A Springfield, Mass., paper recently 
said: “No,” when they got a letter from a vacuum cleaner manu- 
facturer who had written that paper to this effect: “We can ad- 
vertise ourselves black in the face in the national magazines, but if 
your local merchants don’t use newspaper space, the goods won't 
sell.” / 

_ That may be true, but if newspaper advertising is going to 
create sales for those dealers in Springfield and if that manufacturer 
can afford to spend that amount of money for Springfield’s popu- 
lation, wouldn’t it be better that he spend that money in the Spring- 
field papers and thus enable the dealer to use twice as much space 
to sell the goods? This would make the manufacturer’s advertising. 
less expensive and more effective, and would also mean more busi- 
ness for the dealer. Often when a manufacturer is told by a dealer 
that the best way to sell goods in that town is to use “such-and- 
such” a paper, the producer is apt to accede to the request, and use 
space in that paper for the dealer. 

Of course, when it comes to window displays, part of the ex- 
pense might logically be shared by the dealer, especially if it be a 
personal demonstration. Then it is sometimes fair for the dealer to 
divide the expense, 50-50. Of course, this, too, depends upon the 
particular conditions. If the dealer has the goods exclusively, then 
it is more logical for him to divide the expense than if everybody 
else in town also has them on sale. 

Most retailers pay, proportionately, $7.00 for their front win- 
dows and about $3.00 for the floor space behind their front windows. 
In other words, a thousand feet of floor space in an obscure street 
will cost say $3,000 a year, while that same floor space on a promi- 
nent street will cost $10,000 a year. This $7,000 more that the dealer 
would have to pay is because of the location—not so much that the 
store is convenient, but that the windows invite the passers-by and 
thus pull trade into the store. 

And yet, here again the average dealer gropes. He doesn’t 
realize how expensive his windows are, and many a window goes 
undressed. The big department stores are different. They know 
that their windows are worth all the attention they can give them. 
But many a dealer, especially in the small town, forgets that his 
window is like a little newspaper of his own. To make it advertise 
for him costs him nothing except a little labor. From manufac- 
turers he gets all sorts of help with which to keep his window con- 
tinually fresh and attractive. There is no excuse in the world why 
any dealer should not give the necessary time to this source of ad- 
vertising, which costs him so little and is apt to bring him so much. 


58 


Retail advertising has given birth to a lot of freak methods. 
Cleverness is good while the line of cleverness is new, but when it 
gets old it is a sorry spectacle. Asa result, the clever kinds of ad- 
vertising — far-fetched contests, such as guessing the number of 
beans in a jar in a window, and many other stunts of that ilk—such 
freaks lost out more and more every day. Meanwhile, the straight- 
forward publicity, by which you tell people what you have and the 
reasons why they ought to buy from you—such is the only style 
that lasts—and which grows continually stronger the longer you use 
its power. This is the kind you can use to the widest and most 
effective result in the newspaper, as well as in your store-window. 


CHAPTER XXXVI 


Department Stores as Individual Institutions. 


In any analysis of retail advertising, the department store pre- 
sents a lot of peculiar problems. In it are summed up everything 
that has to be said in connection with all other kinds of advertising. 
For, the department store advertiser has further Py Roms beyond 
those which confront the usual retailer. ie 


The tremendous machinery of a department store’s organiza- 
tion causes many complications. This is due to the tendency of the 
day. For, in all business there is this tide toward concentration— 
toward the construction of one big organization—so that one high- 
paid manager may direct more and more business—so that the same 
amount of property can yield a bigger volume of trade than if it held 
a single store with limited clientele. 


This world-wide tendency has been the cause of the depart- 
ment store. And through its peculiar organization, due to its size, 
the department store has developed an organization all of its own. 


The department store is distinctive. Like the newspaper, it is 
almost an institution. People grow so loyal that they swear by a 
certain department store. They would not go to another. They 
talk of it, as 1f it were part of their lives. Often they even argue 
for it as against the favorite store of someone else. 

And, in turn, every department store, no matter how big, 
possesses a personality of its own. Perhaps it may mean a certain 
kind of service, or an atmosphere. If it doesn’t—if it is just a 
huge, lifeless project—then it has but little grip. Such a one has 
got to depend entirely on low price, if it is to be even a mediocre 
success. 

How can you build up that distinctiveness? How can you 
make a certain kind of a real, live institution out of your depart- 
ment store? 

That is the biggest question the department store has to face. 
The answer to that problem is the same secret which builds up a 
clientele—which piles up business—and which makes the total bene- 


59 


fit of a series of ads greater than the total of the individual benefits 
of each of the ads. 

Department stores help create this distinctive atmosphere 
through their advertising. One store saturates its dignified Chel- 
tenham style of typography with daintiness of illustration. Another 
store seems to use naught but square cornered, blackface Gothic. 
Yet, many a time, a person will go into the former store and ask 
for something that has been advertised by the latter—and vice versa. 
So you see, it is mighty hard to build up this distinctiveness in the 
advertising. But such is necessary, as is-the eternal effort of the 
department store to make its service and its whole atmosphere, in- 
dividual and distinctive. 

The effort to make an individual institution out of a depart- 
ment store goes even further. It enters into the merchandise itself. 
This tendency creates a problem which today confronts the progress 
of national advertising —for some department stores want to be 
themselves and nothing else. Many department stores insist that 
their own trade-mark be on all goods. One institution in New 
York, which does a business of thirty million dollars, has hardly a 
nationally advertised trade-mark in the entire store. If they do 
use the products of nationally-advertised industries, they call them 
by some brand of their own. 

In fact, sometimes stores of that class absolutely refuse to 
carry nationally-advertised goods, even though they lose money by 
not carrying them. They want their store to be absolutely dis- 
tinctive. They desire even’ more than a mere atmosphere of their 
own. Even in their merchandise they want to stand on their own 
name. They don’t want to push a line of manufacturer’s goods in 
any way, lest they help build a demand for those products ‘in their 
store. For, in that event, they fear, the manufacturer would have 
the upper hand, that he could make them buy his goods at his own 
terms. 

“We have to stand behind our goods, anyway. If anything 
goes wrong, we have to make good. Why, then—as long as we 
are held responsible for what we sell—why shouldn’t we brand them 
with our own name?” 

That is the way the manager of a big Eastern department 
store sums up this tendency away from manufacturers’ trade-marks 
toward the store’s own private brands. 


CHAPTER XXXVII 
How Big Stores Select Goods. 


A department store's advertising policy helps decide what 
goods to buy. Although it is true that many big institutions prefer 
to push goods under their own trade-marks, some boast of the num- 
ber of factory-trade-branded lines that they carry. 

There is on exception to any department store’s tendency to 
keep away from the nationally advertised goods. That is when the 
department store secures an exclusive right—no matter how rabid 


60 


the store may be on this principle of self-marked goods. Such may 
claim that their name absolutely stands behind everything they sell 
and that, therefore, it is their name which should insure the cus- 
tomer. | 

It is natural that the advertising policy of a department store 
should largely influence its buying policy. As its managerial or- 
ganization is largely one of buyers, the very personnel of a big 
store's machinery is closely related to advertising. . 

So, the organization of a department store is important in any 
consideration of retail advertising. Asa rule, the active head is the 
merchandise manager, who has, under him, a corps of buyers. Each 
of the men manages a different department. Each buyer is really 
the sales manager for his department, but his buying is even more 
important than the selling. 

The buyer is called a buyer because he spends the greatest 
amount of time in actual buying. Yet the buying is merely done 
so as to make for the greatest possible amount of sales. In this, 
the better the department manager buys, the better he is as a sales- 
manager. 

Every buyer, each at the head of a different department, is 
subject to the merchandise manager. This man is practically the 
head buyer. Together with the advertising manager it is he who 
usually decides the broader questions in regard to advertising. 
When it comes to a decision in regard to the particular depart- 
ment, the head of that department, the buyer, is called into the 
conference. 

Of course, a buyer is responsible for the business of his de- 
partment. If too much money is spent on advertising, his depart- 
ment may show a loss. If the wrong item is advertised, the business 
will not come in and, therefore, the advertising expense will be too 
great, and the net profit too little. For that reason, the buyer has 
much to say about the advertising. | 

Theoretically, in regard to the advertisement of any certain 
thing in a certain department, these three men decide. They are 
supposed to select the merchandise. But, as it really works out, the 
buyer usually selects the merchandise and it is merely O. K’d. by 
the other two. 

Thus the departmental management selects what goods shall 
“be advertised. The choice is sometimes based on competition— 
with an aim to meet something that has been advertised by some 
other store. Sometimes, the goods are picked for advertisement on 
account of cut-price—for instance, articles that have been bought 
under-price and so can be sold at less than usual-price. Many 
-times, however, the choice is simply based on the seasonableness 
of the goods. 

Of the considerations which usually determine what shall be 
selected for advertisement, timeliness is the greatest factor. For 
instance, the Christmas season would call forth certain goods to be 
advertised, regardless of whether they were practically under-priced 
or not. The summer season would call forth the advertisement of 
certain other seasonable goods. House-cleaning time would oc- 
casion the advertisement of furniture and so on. 


61 


Outside of those seasonable considerations, there is that of 
cut-price. This sometimes simply seeks to attract people to the 
store, so as to get them to buy something in addition to the “leader” 
advertised. Or else, low-price may be put on goods because ofa 
particularly lucky bargain obtained in the original purchase of the 
goods by the store. 

Unfortunately, there is another Perec on which often en- 
ters into retail advertising—and that is the amount of business done 
a year ago today. The department manager always taces this bug- 
a-poo of previous records. Although conditions may not be ripe tor 
him now to sell the same amount of goods that he did a year ago, 
yet he feels he is falling down if he does not equal or eclipse the 
former figures. That tempts him, sometimes, to use more adver- 
tising than he should—or to cut the price more than he ought to, 
in order to keep up to that empty record. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 
The Ad Man and the Store’s Buyers. 


The department store organization consists of the executive 
head, with the department heads as buyers. These are the men who 
also direct the sales in each department. They have to perform 
every kind of a duty. Individually, they are practically managers 
of the small stores which comprise the big one. ‘They have to buy 
and they have to sell, and they have practically to direct all adver- 
tising which concerns their own departments. 

The buyers, however, have little to do with credits of cus- 
tomers. They have nothing to do with the financing of the store 
in general. 

Although, as to advertising, the department manager is re- 
sponsible for his department, he does not have to get up the ad in 
the form in which you see it in the newspapers. Nor does he need 
to know much about the mechanical details of this phase of the 
work. He may not know one size of type from another, or a half- 
tone from a zinc-etching. And yet, really, he is the man who does 
the advertising. And in the department-store business, the adver- 
tising is all-important, for it governs the merchandise, and the 
merchandise is everything. 

A department manager must bear advertising in mind every 
time a salesman comes to sell him something. Whenever he con- 
siders the purchase of stock for his department, he has to ask him- 
self: “How advertisable is this?” He has to buy on the basis of 
the goods’ appeal to his customers. He knows that he buys simply 
to sell. And for the goods to sell, they must appeal to the cus- 
tomer, whether that appeal results from the customer voluntarily 
“looking around” in his department, or whether he forces upon them 
the appeal—and wins attention to the goods, in spite of the invol- 
untary attitude of the customer. To do either he must offer de- 
sirable goods at a desirable price. And, to do this, he must buy 
with “salability” as the prime consideration. 


62 


The advertising manager in a department store is, in a way, a 
clearing-house for the individual advertising abilities of the depart- 
ment heads or buyers. His work is highly specialized. Yet it 
ought to be sufficiently generalized to bring about a harmony 
among all the different advertising. ideas of all these different buy- 
ers. But the ad-man’s job is largely to smooth down and to polish 
up the advertising. The success of the appeal itself must depend 
on the obvious value of the merchandise offered. 

And so, quite frequently, even if an advertising man has little 
power of diction, or display-ability, or other elements of advertising 
skill—still, if he happens to work in a store which knows how to 
choose merchandise, he may win out quite as well as a more bril- 
liant advertising writer. For department store advertising is sim- 
ply news. And if the facts are presented pleasantly, they will win 
the business. . 

Of all problems, the advertising problem is about the knottiest 
a buyer faces. There is little guesswork to this kind of advertising. 
Every cent that is spent on publicity for his department is charged 
up against him. He knows just how much it costs to “keep the 
business coming,” as far as his particular part of the store is con- 
cerned. He knows whether that cost is at a higher percentage than 
it was a year ago. He knows whether he is getting the same 
amount of business that he got a year ago. 

And, with the same amount of advertising, if he is not getting 
the same amount of business, he knows he has either chosen the 
wrong goods to advertise, or in some other way he has fallen down. 

Business conditions, or weather, or other elements may make 
today’s business different from that of a year ago. These points are 
given consideration. But, still, regardless of all outside factors, the 
buyer is eternally up against those plain figures of the cost of his 
advertising as compared with the current volume of his department’s 


' business. 


And right there lies the success or failure of a department. 
‘The department that does not increase in volume, is regarded as 
one to be watched by the management. And yet, the department 
that increases in volume and still incurs too great an advertising ex- 
pense, is also to be looked after. The buyer, therefore, has to act 
the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde role, an increaser of business and a 
decreaser of business-getting expenditures. 


CHAPTER XXXIX 


Why Do Stores Hold Sales? 


Especially when it comes to sales, the departmental buyer se- 
lects what stock to feature on the basis of its salability, which 
means its advertisability. All special goods which are thus to be 
featured in a sale are chosen by the buyer—the department man- 
ager. 


63 


The merchandise manager, who acts as a sort of head buyer, 
may suggest, and may often initiate. But, as a rule, it is the buyer 
who says: “That shall go in at 99c and that at 46c.” He will in- 
dicate the prices on those goods—sometimes so low that every such 
article that he sells will mean a loss to the store and therefore a 
black mark against the profit of his department. 

He knows his first job is to make money for his department. 
And yet, he willingly and knowingly marks the goods below cost. 
He puts in a pair of gloves that cost him $1.05 and marks them 95c. 
Every pair he sells means a dime out of the store’s coffers. But, 
the buyer realizes that this is one way to attract people to his store, 
so that they may see the service and realize how pleasurable it is to 
deal there. That is why he offers them a real bargain—a bargain 
which is not only a bargain in the ad, but is really a bargain in the 
actual value of the goods. 

Most department stores are built on advertising. And fre- 
quently this advertising is made successful by bargains—made pos- 
sible by a merchandising ability. For, prices, of themselves, will 
attract trade to a department store. 

The department store can sell at a loss on some items, because 
they can sell enough other goods to make up for that loss they may 
incur on an advertised bargain. So it is volume of business that 
underlies a department store’s success. For that is what makes 
possible this kind of action-advertising. 
| Of course, all department stores do not have price as the key- 
stone of their business-getting. But most do. If they do not have 
price, they must have some sort of an appeal of class, exclusiveness 
or style. And yet even such stores are apt to resort to price-atten- 
tion every now and then. 

Of course, the buyer’s job in connection with advertising is 
one of detail and simply pertains to his own department. Seldom 
does a buyer initiate a sale in his department of sufficient impor- 
tance to dominate the entire store. Sometimes, tho, this is done by 
furniture departments. Furniture sales are apt to become the 
major attraction of a store, for the reason that furniture mounts 
into money so fast. A furniture sale may turn over $20,000 or $30,- 
000: a day in a great big store. 

That means that they can afford to buy a page, for instance, in 
the biggest newspapers, and yet have enough business so that this 
page advertising for that one department would only cost at the 
rate of 2 or 3% of the volume of consequent sales. But, you can 
see how impossible it would be for the notion department, for in- 
stance, to have a sale all of its own and predominate the store 
through a page of.advertising. Even if a notion department buyer 
got all the business that there was in the city in his line that day, 
he could not get enough to warrant the cost of that page advertis- 
ing on anything like a 2 or 3% basis. 

And so, usually, the little sales events are simply constituent ele- 
ments of merchandise attraction which the buyers prepare and 
plan. They serve merely as units in a general, all-embracing sales 
scheme which the advertising manager of the department store 
conceives and conducts. Some big stores will have different store 


64 


sales of this kind almost every week in the year. This week it will 
be the “Employees’” Sale—next week, the “Employer’s” Sale—an- 
other week, the ‘““Department Heads’” Sale, and so on, through the 
“Golden Harvest” Sale and a lot of other such events. To each of 
these the different buyers, or department heads, contribute. They 
participate simply by having their departmental items included in 
the general event. 


Many old-established stores have such sales in almost as con- 
ventional and inevitable rotation as the calendar itself. A good 
many of them know now just what kind of a sale they are going 
to have a year hence. They follow through a set schedule of sales 
events, year in and year out. 


CHAPTER XL 


Are Some Things Un- Advertisable ? 


A department store can successfully advertise anything, be- 
cause anything can be advertised on price. But, is everything ad- 
vertisable in a way that places price as a minor factor? 

A big advertising man once went into a metal bed factory and 
told the sales manager that they ought to put $50,000 per year into 
a general publicity campaign to build up a trade-mark on their iron 
beds. The sales manager told him that it could not be done, The 
advertising man stated that a certain mattress had been a tremen- 
dous success through advertising, and there was no reason why an 
iron bed could not be made a great big thing in the same way— 
moreover, “any article, possessed of fair merit could be advertised 
in a general ‘publicity’ way, with profit to the advertiser.” 

But, on analysis, it would seem that there are certain articles 
of merit which cannot be successfully advertised in a general way, 
except on the basis of price. 

Any article can be advertised on price—even a boatload of sand. 
Any article can be advertised in a localized or specified way. But, 
for a general campaign whose end is simply the popularization of a 
trade-mark, or the establishment of an atmosphere in favor of the 
thing advertised—for that kind of a general publicity campaign, to 
make anything which is “Unknown-by-Brand,” well known, it is 
necessary that the article to be advertised in that way must possess 
either one of these two elements: 

(1) If it be of good “repeat”—if by getting Mrs. Jones to use 
your crackers today, she will be likely to order another box tomor- 
row, then it will probably be profitable to advertise such a thing 
will all sorts of general publicity. 

(2) If it be a thing that has practically no repeat—if the 
average person bought such an article only once every five, ten or 
fifteen years—then to be suitable for a broad general campaign of 
publicity, it will have to possess DIFFERENCE, either actual or 
potential. 


5 65 


By actual difference is meant some distinctive difference, such 
as a patented virtue, as found, for instance, in the Gillette Razor, 
Burroughs Adding Machine, or things of that kind. By virtual 
difference is meant a quality which, if not actually different, may be 
suspected of being different. | 

For instance, the “So-and-So” mattress, which that advertising 
man mentioned, might be in every specification the same as one that 
could be made by any one of half a thousand other concerns in this 
country. Yet, that might be successfully advertised because it has a 
virtual difference, i. e., its quality is not entirely obvious. Its con- 
struction, its ingredients, etc., etc., are sufficiently mysterious to the 
average housewife so that even if the dealer should seek to prove to 
her that she should buy another kind (whose name is not so fa- 
milijar) at lower price and higher quality, then the woman would be 
suspicious. She could not see for herself the claimed sameness of 
the two. Therefore, she might insist on the So-and-So mattress, 
which years of advertising had established in her mind as the one 
mattress which she wanted. 

On the other hand, suppose there were an iron bed which, like 
that mattress, had been advertised and advertised. Suppose that 
this were called the “Steel-Art Bed.” Suppose a woman came in to 
buy an iron bed, and a “Steel-Art” kind were on the floor next to a 
no-name bed. She would not be so insistent for the “Steel-Art” Bed 
as against the no-name, if the dealer said they were the same. Why? 
Because she could see that there was practically no difference. The 
face value of the iron bed would be the actual value. The compari- 
son would be obvious, therefore she would believe the dealer. This 
would help negative the value of whatever advertising the “Steel- 
Art” people had done to make their name well known. Of course, 
however, if the “Steel-Art” advertising had been in the local news- 
papers over the local dealer’s name, the dealer would probably feel 
so kindly toward “Steel-Art’ beds, that his very co-operation might 
make such advertising pay. 


CHAPTER XLI 


Are Some Seeming-Unadvertisable Things, 
Advertisable ? 


Are some things of slow repeat and of little distinctiveness, 
really advertisable after all? 
How about pianos? Can they be successfully advertised, 
even tho a piano is bought by an individual even less often than a 
metal bed? Yes. There is an element of mystery to the piano. 
Likewise, a watch can be successfully advertised. That, too, has an 
element of mystery. Yet, neither pianos nor watches are of “re- 
petitive’ demand. Nor do either possess actual points of differen- 
tiation. But, from a practical standpoint they are capable of dif- 
ferentiation because in neither is the face value the main value. 


66 


But, if an article is a necessity continuously in demand, then, 
though it neither be actually nor virtually different, it may be suc- 
cessfully advertised because, then, it is of repetitive demand, and if 
you do succeed in getting the prospective purchaser to try it out, 
it will mean that she will not only use it once, but many times. 
Therefore, your cost of switching her over to your brand is spread 
over enough repeat sales so as to make your final average cost per 
sale even lower than you could possibly make it without advertising. 

Furthermore, even though this differentiation (or its equivalent 
—mystery) be lacking from such an article of repeat, it can be suc- 
cessfully advertised because the publicity has so little work to do. 
Its task is ata minimum. All it needs do is to persuade the prospect 
to spend for this, rather than for that. It does not have to cause the 
spending of money that otherwise would not be spent. Therefore, 
advertising of a repetitive product has less uphill work to do than 
has any other kind of advertising. 

You may say that bricks are bricks, yet they can be success- 
fully advertised. Yes, if there is a virtual difference put into them, 
such as in Hy-Tex bricks. You may say that cement is cement. 
Yes, but there, too, there is enough of a virtual difference so that 
the ultimate consumer is suspicious. If advertising has led him to 
believe that Alpha will stand up better, he may be willing to in- 
struct his contractor to use Alpha, even though it may mean a few 
cents more per barrel. He is afraid lest that which the dealer may 
Say iS just as good may lack certain mysterious chemical ingredients 
which tend to make cement weather the storm. So he insists on 
Alpha, and the Alpha advertising is not negatived when it comes to 
the final selling from dealer to consumer. 

But, it would be folly to assert that this or that cannot be ad- 
vertised in a general way because it lacks these two factors: (1) 
repeat or (2) difference. But the possibility of that fact should 
cause the advertiser to analyze and to refrain from such syllogisms 
as “Everything is advertisable, therefore this product can be suc- 
cessfully advertised in this general way.” Specifically, an iron bed, 
of fair merit, may not be suitable for general publicity. One manu- 
facturer spent $75,000 to find that out. Therefore, the first question 
to ask in regard to anything proposed for a publicity campaign is 
this: “Can this thing be advertised?’ After that will come “how,” 
“when,” “where” and all the other questions. 

The trouble with the bed manufacturer who found that he had 
wasted $75,000 trying to advertise metal beds (which he finally de- 
cided were “Unadvertisable”), was simply that he did not find the 
right formula. He had used the magazines, and had tried to build 
his argument on quality. This man has now switched to the argu- 
ment of price, and the newspapers are carrying the message that, on 
account of this factory’s productive capacity, its products are 
cheaper. This is bringing the business. Therefore, the advertising 
is a success. Therefore, the product was advertisable—in that sense. 

This manufacturer refers to the change in his advertising angle 
as being along the line of “department store” methods. And why 
not? Price is the most interesting thing to a possible purchaser, 
and if your argument is that your goods are cheapest, why not use 
that fact in the newspapers? 


67 


MCHAP TE Riki bt 


What Distributive Method to Choose. 


As a producer, or a wholesaler who seeks to sell more than lo- 
cally, you must first decide whether your goods are advertisable. 
How to advertise them will depend entirely on the sales system 
that you wish to use. And that system will be called your method 
of distribution. 

First, you have your product, whether it be made in your fac- 
tory or whether you buy it from some one else. You decide you 
want this product to be a big thing. You don’t want to limit its 
sale to your city, or to your section, or even to your state. You 
want to reach the entire nation—at least, as far as transportation 
limitations will allow. 

In other words, you decide that you will use advertising to 
make the greatest possible distribution of your goods. And if you 
decide on that, you have to decide on what system to use. For in- 
stance, suppose you make wire fence. You will have competitors 
in the national field who do not manufacture their own wire fence. 
They buy it from another factory. Now, both you and these other 
concerns do a business of three million dollars a year. Yet you have 
an entirely different system of distribution. 

You may dispose of your wire through a sales force. Suppose 
you have about fifty men—one man to a state. These men go 
through the country and call on the dealers. John Jones who runs 
the feed mill at Angola, for instance, will be called on by your rep- 
resentative, who will try to get Mr. Jones to put in a lot of your 
wire fence and pay for it on arrival. Eventually, John Jones, in 
turn, sells your wire fence to the farmers in his surrounding terri- 
tory and pockets profit on each sale that he makes. 

Your competitor may work by an entirely different method. He 
may not have a single salesman. Probably, his only employees are 
the people in his office. But he uses thousands of dollars’ worth of 
advertising each year, instead of having a sales force. He announces 
his wares in about 150 different farm journals or agricultural publi- 
cations. These ads are simply designed to bring in inquiries. The 
ads say that “this is good wire and it is only 13c a rod.” The 
farmer is supposed to write in and say: “I would like more informa- 
tion. Send me your catalogue.” 

Thus, without any salesman, this other man (simply by mail) 
might dispose of as many dollars’ worth of wire fence each year as 
you could—even if they did not make an inch of that wire them- 
selves, whereas you were a big manufacturer. 

There are many such cases in which two concerns in the same 
business operate under entirely different sales methods. This shows 
you the problem that you would have to face when about to start 
an advertising campaign. For your first big problem is: “What 
method of distribution shall I adopt?” 7 

In the two cases cited above, you have the same product and 
the same market. You each have wire fence to sell—and you each 
have the farmers to whom to sell your fence. The qustion is—how 


68 


can you make the greatest profit?—by selling through salesmen, 
through dealers—or by selling in the direct way, using the mail to 
persuade people who have asked for further information. 

There are also many other possible ways to get distribution. 
And as to which one to adopt, you must decide. Your decision will, 
of course, decide as to how you shall advertise—and, whether you 
want to advertise. 

Many economists favor the direct method of distribution from 
the wholesaler (whether he be the manufacturer or the jobber) 
right straight to the consumer—the person that will ultimately use 
the material—whether it be fence or what-not. This method gains 
more favor all the while. Its advocates claim they thus eliminate 
all the middlemen. But in actual figures, it involves a fairly high 
cost per sale. This is because so much correspondence is necessary, 
and because the usual cost of getting an inquiry as a result of an 
advertisement in a magazine, is around $1 for each request thus 
created. 

So, even in the matter of fence, it is possible that the big man- 
ufacturer who sells through the local dealer with the help of local 
advertising may actually undersell his direct-dealing competitor 
when all is said and done. 


CHAPTER XLIII 
Through-Dealer Way Versus Direct-by- Mail. 


After you have decided that your product is advertisable, big 
problems of distribution will confront you. 

Will you sell through dealers—or by mail? The latter is usu- 
ally a temptation. Often, like most temptations, it may take you to 
a pitfall. 

For instance, it would be impossible for the Cudahy Packing 
Co. to sell Dutch Cleanser by mail, for the reason that the house- 
wife would buy a package today and perhaps another package next 
week. Each package would mean a 10c sale. But, the cost of sell- 
ing—the cost of all the necessary correspondence and so on would 
more than wipe out all possible profit. 

Thus, you see, a 10c article of that kind would be impossible 
of sale by the direct-by-mail method. Even a 25c article would sel- 
dom permit of such a method. And yet, it depends. Some novel- 
ties, such.as a watch fob, can be sold by that method successfully. 
Although it brings only 25c, a thing of this kind may cost only 4c. 
Therefore, the seller would have 21c which might take care of the 
cost of getting the inquiry, through an advertising medium, and 
might also cover the other expenses of the letters and other follow- 
up literature necessary to complete the sale. But if that 25c article 
should cost the advertiser 20c it would be impossible for him to 
market that successfully by the direct-by-mail method. 

But when you sell goods like wire fence, on which the orders 
average from fifteen to twenty or twenty-five dollars for each order, 
then if it does cost you 75c to get your inquiry through the adver- 


69 


tising medium and to complete the sale through the follow-up liter- 
ature—even then you will probably make money on each sale be- 
cause the sales cost might thus be less than 5% of the amount sold. 
Then, your selling cost would be low enough to make this direct-by- 
mail method profitable. 

If you sell by mail, there is another element that enters in. 
You have to get repeat business. In other words, you have to be 
fairly sure that your this-year’s customer, when he decides to use 
some more goods in your line two years from now, will choose your 
concern from which to buy. Because, as a rule, a mail-order busi- 
ness must make its profit by dividing the first selling expense over 
a lot of subsequent orders, which ultimately must come in from the 
person whom you this year win as a new customer. Otherwise, 
your cost of the first sale may be so high that you will lose money. 

There is another element in a mail-order business—especially 
if you are selling a staple article, an article which most people want 
and use. You have got to sell on the basis of price. It is easier for 
the average person to call up the local store and say: “Send me so- 
and-so.’ It is easier to do that than to go to the trouble to send for 
goods by mail. It is a temptation, too, to go to the home store, be- 
cause you know the man and you can see what you are getting. If 
people send to a distant city for their goods, rather than buy them 
at home, it must be that they believe they can get those goods for 
less money. 

Price, then, is an element which you have to have in favor of 
your goods if you hope to distribute them direct by mail. You must 
make people see that they will save money on your goods. Some- 
times mail-order projects fail largely through the fact that it is so 
hard to make people, see that they will save money. If you were of- 
fered a box of Uneeda Biscuits for 3c, you would instinctively say to 
yourself, “I save 2c” because you know their value. If you were 
shown a picture of a good pair of shoes, and it was explained that 
these were $4 shoes for $2.95, you might be impelled to buy because 
you might think that the value was an undeniable bargain. But 
you would be far less likely to buy those shoes than you would be 
to buy those cut-price crackers. 

So, if what you have to offer must be seen in order to be appre- 
ciated, it would probably be best to have your goods on dealers’ 
counters rather than in a catalog. Yet that is only one of the many 
reasons why a through-the-dealer distributor is best, even though it 
does seem less romantic than a direct-by-mail method. 


HA Day Ree 


Direct-by-Mail Advertising Problems. 


Just as analysis of prospect and product will help you decide 
whether or not to seek a factory-to-family distribution, so, also, sim- 
ilar analysis will determine whether or not to adopt a direct-by-mail 
advertising method. 


70 


You are always up against the problem as to what kind of a 
man, Or woman, or boy, or girl, your prospect is. For instance, 
whenever you consider a mailing plan by which you would send 
out a number of circulars, you must always face the question: 
“Shall we enclose a postal card?” 

Whether you should enclose just an order card of your own, 
or a government postal card, depends on the habits of the person 
who will get the circular. If it goes into the office of an executive 
of a factory he will probably just put it in his letter basket, and he 
will answer on a letter-head, if he answers through dictation, where- 
as if it goes to someone whose correspondence facilities are fewer, 
they are apt to put your circular aside and not answer it unless you 
make it easy for them to answer. In such a case the postal card is 
desirable. 

So then, as a rule, either a stamped or an unstamped postal 
card should be enclosed whenever you send a circular letter and 
card to facilitate an answer, may sometimes make the whole mailing 
profitable, whereas without it, the effort might be a failure. As to. 
the question of the government postal card or a stamped card as 
against one that is not stamped, the character of the prospect will 
again help determine. The point would be whether that stamp 
would be enough of a suggestive influence on the prospect so that 
it would help decide his judgment as to whether or not he would ask 
for further information with a view toward ultimate purchase. 

This point also brings you to analysis of the thing to be sold. 
If you seek to sell a 25c article and if you were to make only a cent 
or so on every one of them that you sold, then it would not be worth 
your while to put on the postage stamp. That would cause a loss 
rather than a profit. Anyway, of course, it is questionable whether 
any inexpensive article could be successfully sold by the mail 
method. 

You must also consider whether or not to use one-cent or two- 
cent stamps on the outside of the mailing matter. Here, too, you 
have to analyze the same considerations—not only as to the pros- 
pect, but also the nature of the product, too. 

Now-a-days you can get a new kind of envelope which can 
practically be sealed and yet takes only one cent in stamps. This 
may alter the problem because today you can send a letter by one- 
cent postage and, except for the stamp, it looks very much like a 
two-cent enclosure, as far as the envelope goes. 

A certain kind of a product, and a certain class of prospects 
should take a certain kind of stamp. Yet, one big advertiser who 
uses twelve follow-up pieces of mail, varies his postage—using one- 
cent postage on half the letters and two cents on the others. Either 
the one-cent or the two-cent stamp must be wrong. This advertiser 
should decide whether, upon analysis of prospect and of that which 
he has to sell, his mail matter warrants a 2c stamp or a lc stamp. A 
test will decide this for him if he tabulates his returns. Possibly, he 
may have some theory that “variety is the spice of life.’ But, logic- 
ally, why not study the product and prospect, by experiment, and 
mathematically find out whether the 2c stamp pays best or whether 
the 1c will yield proportionately greater returns. 


71 


Such a trial can be made in this way: Suppose you have a 
mailing list of 5000 names. On letters to 2500 of these names put 
a two-cent stamp. On the other 2500 use a one-cent stamp. When you 
check the returns, you can tell how much each 2500 have cost, on 
the basis of the number of resultant inquiries, or orders. 


Perhaps you cannot determine this point by only one experi- 
ment. But, on several experiments, you ought to be able to find 
out whether the penny, or the two-cent stamp, is best. By simply 
taking a number of experiments and compiling the actual returns in 
this way, you can also find out whether or not the enclosure of a 
stamped postal card, or a non-stamped one is more profitable. 


However, although the advertiser’s first temptation is to try 
the direct-by-mail method, it is frequently the most inefficient form 
of publicity. Unless the thing advertised has a very small percent- 
age of possible prospects, an ad in a publication may be much bet- 
ter, for the reason that a person reads what they see in print, with a 
voluntary interest. Toward mail-matter the usual impulse is: 
“Humph—that’s only a circular.” 


Also, in the matter of cost, the direct-by-mail system is at a 
disadvantage. For instance, 1000 typewritten letters of one page 
each, would cost over $15 to send out—even if a one-cent stamp 
were used. If that same number of words were put into the usual 
newspaper reading type, the cost for its insertion in a newspaper 
would be about $10 for every 100,000 people reached. In other 
words, the newspaper announcement would cost two-thirds as much 
and would reach 100 times as many. 


CEA PERNA ae 


What About Prospect’s Ability to Buy? 


One analysis the advertiser must make is: “Can they afford 
it?” In the city, almost everyone who has the intelligence to read 
an English-speaking daily, has enough for the necessities and some 
luxuries. 


In the country the percentage is even greater. In fact, in the 
matter of the farmer’s buying power, we find that in a single coun- 
try—sparsely settled and not a very rich part of the country—the 
farmers, according to Some) university statistics, spend one million 
dollars a year. 


In a country-wide problem you have to look at the public to 
find out which ones you will select as your best possible prospects. 
Conversely, you have to look at your product and decide whom it is 
impossible to sell. If you have to advertise a luxury, even though 
it be partly a necessity, you can figure that there are twenty-five 
million people in the United States who cannot afford your product. 
Possibly you may make them buy, but on the bases of living ex- 
penses and income, they cannot afford it. 


72 


Herbert N. Casson, who is as keen a student of this kind of 
analysis as any expert of the day, makes a statement that out of the 
hundred million people in the United States, there are only five mil- 
lion families who really have a sufficient income to warrant a man- 
ufacturer in advertising to them. 


A few years ago, a patented piece of furniture appeared on the 
market. This was heralded as a wonderful success. The plans 
were great. Advertising was started at the rate of $10,000 a month. 
A New York millionaire put in all the necessary money. ‘The in- 
ventor thought the resultant royalties were going to make, him a 
Rockefeller in a jiffy. One of the most successful advertising man- 
agers in New York, making about $10,000 a year, decided to take a 
chance. He gave up his position and went into the project to earn 
a small salary and get a share of the stock. 


This article was put on the market to sell at $10. The aver- 
age thing of the kind usually brought around $7 or $8. At $10 this 
specialty had too few possible prospects. For instance, a man who 
was making about $3000 a year said it was good. But he could not 
afford this novelty. 


Here was a man with over $3000 a year and he couldn’t afford 
this article. That explains why the business turned out to be a flat 
failure. If the originators had analyzed the statistics to begin with, 
they would have known that failure was probable because in the 
first place, costing what it did, only about 10% of the people could 
afford it. In the second place there would be only about 5%—even 
of those people—who would happen to have any use for it. As a 
result, the possible market was limited to less than 1% of the pop- 
ulation. And yet they sought to advertise to that handful—using 
and paying for the space in magazines that reached the whole na- 
tion. 

Experts have also figured out on the basis of experiments that 
a $3 article will sell five to one as against a $5 article. This is 
proved by many experiences as to articles which, at first, have sold 
at a price which has seemed exorbitant. Under this handicap of 
costliness, the fight has been up-hill. Chances for success have 
looked far from bright. One advertiser who had this experience, 
cut the price just about in two. Then he tried out the new price in 
five towns, using the same amount of space in the newspaper as he 
had used before when his price was twice as much. As a result, 
when he took a census of the amount of goods that had been sold in 
the month he tried the new arrangement, he found that in those five 
towns he had sold ten times as much as when the price was double. 


So, you see, in that case, this man’s actual net profit was five- 
folded by cutting the price in two. Of course, other elements enter 
problems of this kind, aside from the fact that the lower the price, 
the more people there are who can buy. Competition also plays a 
part. Not only does a lowered price create new business by making 
it possible for more people to buy. Also, a decreased price will add 
to your volume much existing business which you will thus divert 
from competitors. That is why lowered price may often mean in- 
creased profit, especially in connection with advertised merchandise. 


73 


CHAPTER XI I 


Where Do the Best Prospects Live ? 


You must not only find out who are able and likely to buy, 
but you must also find where they are. You will have to decide 
whether to try to sell your product to the city trade or the rural 
trade or both. Of course, some articles would be for sale only in 
the country and others would have their market only in the city. 
But there are many things which can be used by both and the ques- 
tion then is which market you should develop first. 

For instance, suppose you are running an insurance company, 
in every city there are hundreds and hundreds of insurance solicit- 
ors. Probably every city resident knows two or three people who 
want to sell them insurance. In the country, on the other, hand, 
there are comparatively fewer insurance agents. 

Taking that analysis you might think that you had better 
make your insurance company’s advertising seek to sell policies by 
mail in the country. But actually, facts seem to show that there is 
a greater percentage of get-at-able prospects in the towns and cities. 
One company tried out the agricultural press to find this out. They 
gave each one of the rural publications a chance with a half page 
ad, saying that if any of them brought inquiries at as low a rate as 
their advertising among city people, then those agricultural maga- 
zines would be included among the publications in which they 
would take space continually. 

Yet, there was only one agricultural publication that brought 
in the inquiries at as lo wa coSt as the average in the publications 
which reached the city. That advertiser went about ‘ft in the right 
way. They analyzed where their market was by actual experiment. 
They found that it would cost more to get their business from the 
country than from the city. From then on they knew where their 
best field lay. 

This question of “who is my best prospect?” is often decided 
at the start of the project. For instance, in the automobile field, if 
a company begins to make a car to sell at a low price, they know 
that their prospects are those of medium means who cannot afford 
a big car, but who might be able to pay $400 for a machine. Conse- 
quently their appeal has to be much different from that of the mak- 
ers of $5000 cars. The former’s methods and the whole system 
would have to be more extensive and less particular as to class. 

In your consideration as to what people comprise your mar- 
ket, the government statistics are about the best aid you have. 
These have helped develop the advertising business by showing 
who and where people are. If it weren’t for the census, few would 
know that the majority of people in the United States live outside 
of the towns and cities—that the rural population of the United 
States is sixty million. 

Not only do government figures answer questions of who are 
our prospect (in the matter of numbers). Also, they tell us who 
can afford to buy what we have to sell. These government figures 


74 


are so valuable that every advertising man should analyze them. 
For instance, take the matter of ability to purchase—in towns and 
cities the average income per family is less than $600 per year. In 
the professional class, lawyers, doctors, etc., the average income is 
not much over $1000 per year. But, on the farms, there are six 
million farmers in the United States who are worth over $15,000 
apiece and there are tw omillion farmers who average over $2500 a 
year net income from their farms. 

So, in any question of “Who comprises my market?’ and 
“Where is the best field to develop?” statistics of this kind are es- 
sential. They also help answer the question as to whether to seek 
to sell to men or to women. Quite often an advertiser may think 
he is selling to men when really, he is selling to women. Men’s 
socks are bought more by women than they are by men. In Wis- | 
consin, the State Census Department figures out that the women of 
that State spend nine hundred million dollars a year. In fact, in- 
vestigations seem to point to the belief that even 55% of all the 
haberdashery is bought by women. 

Good statistics will also show where the best markets are 
when judged from the standpoint of business conditions. You 
would not advertise in the wheat belt, for instance, if the wheat crop 
had been a failure. Nor would you advertise in Aroostock County, 
Maine, if recent potato crops had been unprofitable. You must use 
analyzed knowledge of this kind to help prevent advertising waste. 


COAPIER AL VIt 


How Analysis Decides Methods. 


After you have found out by analyses who your best pros- 
pects are and where they are, then you will know not only where 
to advertise but, also, you will have a much better idea of how to 
advertise. 

. For instance, suppose you had an automobile accessory to put 
on the market. Of course, your first task would be to make the 
people in the big city want your article, because this kind of sales 
development could be done at the least expense comparatively; but, 
if you knew that in Pennsylvania and Ohio a fairly authoritative 
investigation shows that 24% of the farmers own autos; and if you 
knew that in Indiana about 19% of them possess motor vehicles; 
and if you knew that in Nebraska nearly 30% of them drive cars, 
then you could well see that the farmer population ought to be 
reached by your advertising plans. 

Suppose you had something to sell that would appeal to 
housemaids only. You would have to figure out how many possi- 
ble prospects this class of workers comprise. Of course, if you 
were able to sell to one hundred million people, it would probably 
be wiser for you to make your price as low as possible, because in 
that way you would get the greatest net revenue. But, if you 


75 


knew there were only two million housemaids in the United States, 
you would at once know that you could, with maximum efficiency, 
sell only 2% of the people. 


Suppose you were advertising one of the many preparations 
which exist which are designed to straighten out the kinks in the 
hair of colored people. You might think that there would be a very 
small market for this article. The fact 1s, however, that there are 
nine million colored folk in the United States, and if your advertis- 
ing were in the South, a large Beene of the public might be 
persuaded to buy your product. 


Some big advertisers today are using as their subjects the 
familiar figures of the railroad world, the fireman and the engineer. 
These characters are surrounded with an atmosphere of romance 
and have an indirect appeal on that ground. But such characters, 
when used in an advertisement, have a direct appeal to all those 
who are interested in the railroad industry, and when you consider 
that there are seven million such in the United States, you can see 
what a great populace you are talking to in terms of their daily 
work. 


If iron and steel are badly hurt by industrial conditions and 
production has been reduced to a minimum in this trade, then you 
know that many who live by their earnings from this industry are, 
for the time being, without the wherewithal to buy what you have 
to sell. Offhand, you might think that this comprised but a small 
percentage of the total of possible buyers. But high-grade statis- 
tics will give you the truth of the matter, which is that there are 
five million who make their living in the iron and steel industry of 
the United States. 


There are probably more farm statistics than any other kind 
of official figures. These will be of help in almost any advertising 
problem. As an example, if you were advertising a stump puller, 
where would your best market be? In the North Atlantic States 
the farm lands comprise nearly 40,000 improved acres as against 
20,000 of woodland. In the South Atlantic States the proportion is 
half and half. Thus you see there is far more stump pulling to be 
done in the former than in the latter and, consequently, the knowl- 
edge of this comparison might tell you which would be the better 
market to work. 


When the thermos bottle was first put on the market, the 
idea was that this novelty would be a great aid to the enjoyment 
of the picnics of the wealthy. As the thing developed, it was found 
that a tremendous market existed among the factory workers who 
would like to take a warm drink to work with them to be used at 
the noon hour. This discovery changed the entire complexion of 
the market. Instead of the prospects being a comparative handful 
of wealthy people, the circle of possible buyers was changed to mil- 
lions of wage earners. As a result, the entire advertising method 
underwent a transformation. Also, the price was changed so as to 
be within reach of the greatest possible number of buyers. 

That has been the history of many a marketing problem. Ex- 
perience has changed the entire plan and has often resulted in the 


76 


widening of the market and the decreasing of price. A knowledge 
of statistics and an analysis of conditions will often go a great way 
to save part of the expense which an unforeseen experience always 
involves. 


CHAPTER XLVITI 


Value of Analysis of Conditions. 


Analysis of prospect to determine how and where to adver- 
tise goes further than an inquiry into the ability to buy. Such in- 
vestigation must take in more than the prospects themselves—it 
must search the conditions which surround those prospects. 

Those analyses must cover the conditions which pervade the 
market. They must scrutinize temporary conditions, such as war 
—permanent conditions, such as habits of the trade; and, above all, 
conditions of competition. These factors will largely: determine 
what advertising tack to take. 

In advertising a baking powder, the manufacturers never used 
to say that it contained no alum. But now, when all the pure food 
experts are decrying the use of alum in foods, the baking powder 
people find it advantageous to make their product appear totally 
different by saying it contains no alum. This is the result of an 
analysis of the prospect, based on a knowledge of conditions which 
surround the market. These advertisers know that the prospect 
has got that idea in her mind. They recognize that condition and, 
therefore, talk to the housewife on the basis of her fear of alum. 

There are also problems of condition—analyses which have to 
do with competition. For instance, a cream separator concern 
found that they could not sell at all in Wisconsin and Michigan, 
whereas they sold very successfully in New England. They ana- 
lyzed and discovered the conditions which explained this fact. By 
talking to their possible prospects, they found that a good many 
in those two Northwestern states had been badly deceived on an- 
other cream separator, and that, as a result, when these people ad- 
vertised in the northwestern farm journals, the farmers would not 
believe their claims. 

These manufacturers, located in the East, would never have 
guessed that they faced a different kind of a problem in Wisconsin 
and Michigan unless they had analyzed their prospects. After ana- 
lyzing their prospects, they changed their tactics entirely and, in- 
stead of making the feature of their advertising the point that their 
separator was cheaper than any other, they turned about and made 
the keystone of all their copy, the fact that they would refund to 
the purchaser his money if the separator were not satisfactory. In 
that way they talked to the farmer in terms of that peculiar state 
of his mind. They met his objection before he got it out of his 
mouth. His fear, based on the fact that he and his friends had 
been stung on other cream separators, was knocked to smithereens 
by the money-back guarantee. 


77 


There are many instances which suggest the worthwhileness 
of this kind of an analysis as to conditions. A big music concern 
was selling in the city and was very successful in advertising its 
pianos on price argument. They tried to expand to the neighbor- 
ing towns, and into the rural districts. But they found that there 
was not the same sort of a pull to their copy there as it seemed to 
have in the city. 

So a representative was sent around to call on some of the 
farmers. He found that they didn’t care so much about price. 
None of them wanted the piano because it was cheaper. He did 
find, however, that here was one big problem which the rural father 
and mother had to face—and that was how to keep the children 
from a desire to go to the city. The man went back and had his 
man write an ad around the idea: “This piano will keep the children 
at home.” As a result, the advertising began to pull. The rural 
piano business became a success. They had analyzed the condition. 
which determined their prospect’s point of appeal. 

Quite, often you have to just try this and try that and try the 
other angle until you find out. In the meantime, you must expend 
a lot of money and effort to find your “Open Sesame!” If you can 
analyze the prospect in all the phases, beforehand, and get the for- 
mula for success, you will save a lot of money. 


In almost everything that is really advertisable there is a cer- 
tain formula for success—a certain line of appeal or certain avenue 
of getting the story to the market—which will win. Only analysis 
or experience can tell you what that secret is. And analysis is often 
cheaper than experience. 


(CEES D re Rw dae 


Analysis as to How and When. 


Endless analysis is necessary in case you are selling at whole- 
sale, whether it be as a manufacturer or as a jobber. It would be 
silly for a man to decide first as to whether he would use billboards 
or magazines for the advertisement of his goods. You would have 
a good many problems before that—particularly, problems as to 
market. 


After you have reached your decision as to how to make your 
goods, you must then face other problems—problems of distribution 
which will help decide your advertising methods. Suppose that you 
were about to manufacture, and had decided on all points in regard 
to the making of your goods. You must now analyze as to the dif- 
ferent methods of distribution which would be possible for you to 
use. 


In the first place, you should try to lay the problem bare in 
its separate elements. There are quite a few charts that have heen 
put forth by students of advertising, which might help you here. 


78 


These charts are sort of slide-rules by which you can measure what 
your problems are. Particularly, they will help you analyze your 
product in the terms of its selling and advertising. That would 
entail that you analyze your prospect. 


One man, by using such a system of analysis, was able to get 
his inquiries on a certain article at a cost of 30c apiece; whereas, 
another man, with the same product, failed to analyze his problem 
and had to pay over 60c apiece for his inquiry. The comparison 
went even further than that. The man who analyzed was able to 
make sales, which amounted to about $30 each, at a cost of about 
$3 per sale. In other words, out of 10 inquiries at 30c each, he was 
able to sell one of those 10. 


The other man not only paid more to bring about a sale, he 
was also unable to get his inquiries at as low a cost. In other 
words, when he spent $30 for a 6-inch ad in a certain publication, 
instead of getting 100 inquiries like the successful one did—thus 
netting a cost of 30c per inquiry—the man who didn’t analyze, got 
only 50 inquiries from each $30 worth of advertising, which meant 
that he had to pay about 60c for his inquiry. Also, for the reason 
that he had not analyzed, his selling expense was Sone Ue 
$12 on $30. He failed. 


The point to that instance is that through analysis and inves- 
tigation, the successful man found that that article could not be 
sold entirely through advertising. He saw that there had to be a 
personal demonstration to make the prospect buy. The other man 
had simply followed something else that looked as if it were about 
the same thing. He tried to sell the article in his advertisement, 
instead of simply seeking to get the “lead” on an inquiry, as it is 
called, which he could follow-up with persuasive literature which 
would land the order. 


The analysis not only concerns the method of distribution. 
Also, it goes into the matter of timeliness. In publication adver- 
tising, along in July and August, the space used is far less than 
that used at other times of the year. That seems logical and ob- 
vious. At that time, most people are busy with vacations, and 
they do not, as a rule, buy as much as at other times of the year. 


So the advertiser figures that people are not hungry for what 
he has to offer at that time. Therefore, he saves up his appropria- 
tion until they are likely to demand what he has to offer. And yet, 
timeliness would direct that certain things be advertised in summer 
and not at other times. Such facts look like simple fundaments 
when, for instance, you say, “Well, a beverage ought to be adver- 
tised during July, August and September,’ perhaps, conditions, 
make, or analysis, determine otherwise. 

In other words, when a manufacturer is about to decide on an 
advertising campaign, he not only has to decide what is the best 
way to distribute the goods, but he also has to decide if July, Au- 
gust, September, May or when is the best time. He must ask: “Is 
this something I had better advertise twelve months of the year, or 
is it better to advertise it for two months and skip for three?” All 
these questions must enter in and they can only be decided on the 


79 


basis of a very strenuous analysis as to the timeliness-element. And 
that analysis must be thorough. Superficial analysis is as bad as 
none. For instance, a manufacturer thought that the summer time 
was a good time for his medicine, because the doctors said so. He 
planned to go into an advertising campaign during July or August. 
But on finding the total amount in this class of remedy, that was 
sold in those months, he found that he had better keep his money 
until later. 


In the automobile field this question of timeliness is being 
fought back and forth all the time. Many say that the time to ad- 
vertise automobiles is in the summer, because then the desire is 
keenest for an automobile. Others say that those who are able to 
buy automobiles are away at that time. Then they do not read as 
they do in the fall and winter. To get some information on that 
point, several automobile factories have sent out to all the owners 
of their products long question blanks called “questionaires.” On 
these they have tried to get the owners to say at what time of the 
year they are most likely to be interested in the question of a new 
car. Such analysis is expensive, but, like almost all analysis in con- 
nection with advertising, you will find it will more than pay in the 
long run. 


CHAPTER L 


Analysis and Mail-Order. 


After you have analyzed your product and prospect, and all 
the conditions which surround both, you will be ready to decide on 
your method of distribution. As a wholesaler or manufacturer, 
your first impulse may be to seek to sell to the ultimate consumer 
direct. 


That is the usual temptation. Why? Because the successes 
in this phase of mail-order business are so romantic. They tower 
over even the largest retail giants. They invite the man of imag- 
ination to go and do likewise. : 


But beware. There have been many many millions lost in the 
chase for mail-order fortunes. If you have not the resources to 
wait and wait, you had better use the usual methods. And if your 
product and merchandise do not happen to suit the mail-order 
method, you cannot possibly succeed with that plan of distribution, 
altho you may win out handsomely in selling through dealers. 


Let us suppose that you are to manufacture shoes. The mail- 
order plan is selected. You tell folks what you have and ask them 
to order by mail. Can you market your shoes successfully in this 
way’ ‘The public knows how the shoes are made. They know 
they are about the same as shoes they have bought at their depart- 
ment store at $3.50. If you offer those shoes for $2.50, providing 


80 


you prove you are reliable, people may send for them because they 
know the value and they can compare. 


But if you had goods whose value was not so obvious as in 
the case of shoes—even tho they might be really cheaper in price— 
you could not sell by mail, simply for the reason that you could not 
make the people see and appreciate your price argument. Take, for 
instance, investment bonds. There has been considerable advertis- 
ing of these in the general publications. 


Unless those bonds were government bonds or something of 
similar obviousness of value, you could not sell them to the gen- 
eral public unless you explained the bonds to the prospects person- 
ally. For very few people outside of the investment people know 
just how much a certain kind of bond should cost. Consequently, 
when you say in your ad that your bond is a fine opportunity to 
make money, the average person does not understand. They are 
not able to say to themselves, as they would in the case of some- 
thing of known value, such as shoes: “This is worth so-and-so. At 
the price offered in this ad I can buy to my profit.” 


There is another element which you have got to consider be- 
fore you decide to distribute your product through any system of 
direct-by-mail. Remember the factory that was not content with 
a $300,000 business, selling through the dealer at a minimum profit 
to themselves. They thought that if the dealer could get $5 more 
than he paid for this product which they offered, then there was no 
reason why they could not get $4 more from the public than they 
were getting from the dealer for this article. And so, without fur- 
ther consideration, they embarked on a mail-order campaign. The 
first thing that happened, of course, was that their customers—the 
dealers—left them for good and all. The dealers were mad. They 
did not like to have this factory say to the people, “Don’t buy from 
your local dealer—buy direct from the factory and save money.” 


Consequently, there was no chance that this manufacturer 
would ever get back those retail dealers on whom they had spent 
so much time and money. As far as the public was concerned, they 
found that they got some orders from customers by mail—but not 
enough to pay for the cost of getting the orders. Success was fur- 
ther precluded by the fact that what they were selling possessed no 
“repeat” quality. In other words, during a lifetime, a person might 
buy two of these articles—say one now and one twenty years from 
now. Consequently, even if the manufacturer gained a family as 
a customer at an expense of two or three dollars’ worth of advertis- 
ing and selling to bring that customer onto their books, even then 
that customer could not give that manufacturer any more business 
for twenty years. Consequently, the cost of getting a purchase 
would have to be all swallowed up in that first sale. Each sale 
they made amounted to less than $10. The gross profit was less 
than $3. The cost of getting the mail-order was over $3. The con- 
cern failed. They had tried to conquer the world by mail-order. 


But, like thousands of other such disasters, they found that 
the iron- Sana of economics, decreed that the mail-order method was 
not the avenue to rane aiter all. 


6 81 


CHAPTER LI 


How About Mail-Order Method? 


It is true that there have been many dismal failures in the 
mail-order field of business. That is largely because so many have 
sought to emulate the giant successes. And there have been some 
tremendous achievements through the mail-order method of dis- 
tribution. 

The Sears, Roebuck Co. of Chicago sell over one hundred 
million dollars’ worth of goods every year. Ten years ago they were 
of mediocre success. Simply through a cumulative element— 
through a repetitive piling up of business—they have gone from a 
comparative failure to a pristine success. Today they do the larg- 
est mercantile business in the world. 


The Montgomery-Ward people sell nearly fifty million dol- 
lars’ worth of goods each year. These people can offer prices, too. 
They are able to buy in such quantity that they get their goods at 
rock-bottom cost. They sell on bargain appeals. 


Tests show that these mail-order houses answer requests in 
phenomenal time. A catalogue is mailed the day the inquiry is re- 
ceived. Personality cannot enter into this kind of selling. The 
sales must be made simply on price and on service. Some mail- 
order men try to sell on personality. All their ads bustle with big 
“T’s.” With self-photos they seek to instill a personality into their 
advertising and hope that it will charm people into buying. But 
personality does not seem to work as well in mail-order distribution 
as do the elements of price and service. 


Usually, the big mail-order house has a aerate of merchan- 
dise. Sometimes, however, the business is concentrated along a 
single line, such as wearing apparel—especially suits, cloaks, coats 
and goods of that kind. There is one company, using the mail- 
order method, which sells thirteen million dollars’ worth of clothes 
every year. Many others in the same general line sell over a mil- 
lion dollars a year in the same way. 


These concerns sell simply by presenting a picture and a price. 
They make it easy for the prospect to sit down by the evening lamp 
and see what pretty clothes she can get for what seems to be so 
little money. Women think they know about things of that kind. 
They think they understand clothing values. Therefore, they be- 
lieve they can readily say how much they will save. Consequently, 
they do not hesitate to buy by mail. 


There are still different kinds of tremendous mail-order suc- 
cesses. Instead of the appealing by price-argument, some mail- 
order institutions, known as premium houses, put the saving that 
they claim to make for purchasers in a round-about form. For in- — 
stance, they will say: “You would have to pay 5c for a box of 
Uneeda Biscuits if you bought them at the corner grocery store. 
Buy them from us and we will give you 5c worth of hair pins in ad- 
dition.’ That is the principle of the premium system upon which 
this kind of mail-order house works. The idea that is intended is 


82 


that they give double value for the same amount of money—not by 
giving half price, but by throwing in a premium gratis. 

Another big element that makes such businesses so successful 
is that these premiums are given only with orders of certain size. 
That tends to make the average sale larger. The bigger the aver- 
age sale, the lower the average selling expense. The lower the 
average expense per sale, the more feasible it is to sell by mail. 

The lure of the mail-order method is largely that if you can 
work the direct-by-mail system successfully in one state, then you 
can extend to cover practically every state in the Union. Thus 
your ultimate possible business has the country for its field. But 
remember, there are certain things which demand so much explan- 
ation that you cannot sell them solely through advertising litera- 
ture. And remember, that many things are of such small profit 
per unit that they cannot be marketed by mail unless your average 
sale can be made of large total. And remember that, nowadays, 
the public is less likely to think goods of better value simply be- 
cause they are offered by mail. 


CHARTER LIT 


Can You Sell Both Consumer and Dealer? 


Can the producer straddle the distribution question? Can he 
enjoy the long profit of the mail-order system, and at the same 
time get the volume of dealer distribution? 

Such a combination is very seldom used, although there are 
some big examples of its employment. The reason is that if a pro- 
ducer tries to go to the public through mail and thus cut out the 
dealer, the dealer is antagonized and refuses to buy from the pro- 
ducer. Thus the dealer refuses to handle the producer’s product 
and won’t do so unless he absolutely cannot help it. 

Yet there are some successful straddlers. A certain mattress 
is about the biggest example of this system of dual. distribution. 
This manufacturer sells his mattress by mail for $20. The same 
mattress will sell to the dealer for $10. Thus he sells through the 
dealer, too, for the dealer is able to sell quite a few such mattresses 
as long as he can afford to sell them for $15, whereas the regular 
price which is advertised in the magazines is $20. 

But the dealer does not like to sell this mattress. In fact, in 
many furniture stores throughout the country, you will find that 
the dealer has in the back part of his shop an advertised mattress 
that he has opened up—just to show the customer why she does 
not want an advertised mattress. The dealer tries to prove this 
other mattress—which the woman can buy for $12—is just as good 
as this one which she has come in and asked for at the price of $15. 

The dual method is a mighty dangerous system of distribution 
to try. For instance, suppose you make furniture. There are 
50,000 possible dealers. Suppose each of them would put $100 


83 


worth of your goods into his stock each year. That would mean 
an annual volume of $5,000,000 and at the barest manufacturing 
profit, such would be a mighty lucrative business. 

Now, suppose you decided to sell some of your furniture by 
mail. An advertising appropriation of $20,000 in the magazine 
might bring you 20,000 inquires, if you were lucky. If your luck 
continued you might sell 10% of these. Suppose you did sell to 
2,000 customers. Their orders would not average $100, like those 
of the dealers. If they averaged $25, that would mean a total busi- 
ness of $50,000, and even if your profit was many times as large, 
that would not give you as much net income as the through-the- 
dealer distribution. 

But the point is that if you tried to sell by mail this way, you 
would enrage the dealers and undermine the through-the-dealer 
business. Some experts recommend the direct method as a begin- 
ning and argue that this will quicken your distribution, so that, later, 
you can enlist the dealers and adopt the ordinary system of dealer 
distribution. 

Meanwhile, however, you may be advertising broadcast, and 
each dollar spent cannot possibly have the efficiency that it would 
possess if put in a place where the goods could be bought. 


CHAPTER /CUTT 


Direct-Through-Agents Distribution. 


The big point about a direct to the consumer system of dis- 
tribution is that such makes possible a relationship with the ulti- 
mate user. When you sell through the local dealer, he exercises 
control and has the manufacturer, more or less, at his mercy. 

There is a way to deal with the consumer and yet get the ex- 
tensive volume that comes from having your goods conveniently 
at hand, so that the consumer does not have to buy by mail. This 
compromise method is the direct-through-agents system. 

This is employed by a lot of well-known companies. For in- 
stance, typewriters, as a rule, are sold through the manufacturer’s 
own salesmen. If you were in the market for a certain brand, you 
could buy it, in your town, only at the company’s local branch 
office. 

You would have to deal with the manufacturer’s own sales- 
man. ‘The reason they have their own representatives is, that in 
order to sell specialties of this kind, a man must know a whole lot 
about such machines—much more than he could possibly know if 
he were also selling bicycles and desks and other things. He has 
to be a specialty salesman, and therefore it is necessary for such 
manufacturers to have more than the finest advertising they can buy 
—more than the most powerful follow-up literature that man can 
create. They have to rely on the personality of the best trained 
salesmen they can find, if they are to sell their machines. 


84 


It is the same way with most automobile factories. They 
‘make, advertise and establish a sort of prejudice in favor of their 
car. They may also follow up with letter after letter. But in order 
to get you to spend that money, which you otherwise would not 
spend, they have to persuade you very energetically through sales- 
men—through personality. And, the automobile salesman must 
know automobiles and know them well. He has to know his car 
so thoroughly that he must devote eight hours a day, year after 
year, in order to learn about that one car in order to sell it well. 

Quite a few shoes are sold by this same method. Some fac- 
tories, for instance, get rid of most of their output through their 
own stores. They cannot sell by mail with much success. In the 
direct system they would have to get people to write in for their 
catalogue. And then they would have to prove to them why they 
should send in an order, on the basis of the choice offered in the 
catalogue. 

In the direct-through-agents system, you need not have to 
‘rely on mail nor advertising literature. All your publicity needs 
to do is to establish that atmosphere which makes people want your 
goods. Then, the prospect is taken care of by the salesman who 
completes the sale. 

Not only is it true that your choice of method of distribution 
will help determine what kind of advertising you will have to do. 
Also it is true, in a corollary way, that the results of an advertising 
plan may automatically necessitate a certain system of sales. Sup- 
pose you were to make the public want your typewriter, for in- 
stance. Then you would have to find out the names of the specific 
individuals who are your prospects—who are in the market for 
something of the kind which you offer. Then you would follow 
them up by means of booklets, and thus, by mail, you would try to 
sell those who seemed likely to buy. Your salesmen would be so 
valuable that it would be cheapest for you to spend this 30c or so, 
per prospect, on advertising literature, so as to get them to think 
fairly well of your proposition. In other words, you would econo- 
mize if you did not make your salesmen spend their time to accom- 
plish the same thing which could be accomplished by advertising. 

Advertising, however, is most effective in connection with a 
direct-through-agents system, when it is worked after the Ford 
fashion. As you have undoubtedly noticed, this company uses the 
newspapers to create a desire for their car, so as to grease the way 
for their salesmen. 


CHAE TER ALI. 


Producer, Jobber, Dealer Distribution. 


Although there may not be a majority of cases by which the 
producer sells his goods to jobber, thence to retailer, still the bulk 
of goods, taking it all in all, are sold in that way. Practically all 
groceries are sold by this method. Practically all druggists use this 


85 


plan of distribution. Hardware—particularly the little things—are 
sold by this same system. On items, on which it is necessary for the. 
dealer to save store space, this system is used. Here the jobber 
fulfills a real function in carrying the goods for the dealer. 

For instance, suppose that on Main Street, in the crowded re- 
tail section, you have a retail hardware business. If you had to - 
carry in your store all the stock that you would have to buy in order 
to get quantity prices, you would probably have to have three times 
the floor space, which would cost a tremendous amount of money. 
Whereas, a wholesale store on a less expensive street could carry 
their stock so cheaply that the cost of goods, plus storage space, 
plus jobbers’ profit, would total less than the factory cost, plus the 
cost of the retailer’s expensive floor space and other fixed charges. 

In a through-the-jobber-system, it is necessary to create an 
automatic flow of goods from jobber, to retailer, to consumer by 
creating a consumer demand. For instance, let us take the case of 
breakfast foods. Some of these manufacturers very seldom go near 
the retail dealer. They may pat him on the back now and then so 
that he will not oppose their product. But, they do not worry 
about the retail dealers, because they feel that the retail dealer will 
sell just as much as the public asks for. Nor do they bother much 
about the jobber. They believe that he does not perform any per- 
sonal function in his part of the distribution. 

By using jobbers, a factory can do away with the need of 
warehouses. By this system, it is also possible for the manufacturer 
to have fewer: customers on his books. He can have one big ac- 
count of the retail dealers. In return for this warehousing and 
bookkeeping function, the jobber gets about 70% discount. The 
manufacturer absolutely depends on publicity to create the flow of 
his goods. 

Think how necessary it is to have a distributive chain between 
the consumer and producer. Suppose you wanted a package of 
cereal. Suppose you had to write to the manufacturer and ask him 
to send you a package. There would be a cost of seven or eight 
cents for the mailing. The manufacturer certainly could not afford 
to sell his goods as low as he can to the jobber in car-loads. And 
he can sell to the jobber at lower price than to the dealer. For one 
thing, the freight rate would be three or four times as much on a less 
than car-load order to the dealer, than on a big shipment to the 
jobber. 
For their distributive system, some producers absolutely de- 
pend on the jobber and the dealer—especially for the performance 
of those mechanical functions by which they simply carry the goods, 
have them on sale. But as regards the sale of goods in the active 
sense, they rely on their advertising to skip over the heads of the 
jobber and dealer right to the consumer, to the end of making them 
want the goods so keenly that they will make their dealers carry 
them. The dealer then will force the jobber to carry them, and to 
keep them in stock' for the dealer’s convenience. In that way, the 
jobber will be forced to buy. 

In this system, advertising is at its height. It is the lifeblood 
of this method of distribution. Without it the whole system would 
fail. It is the advertising which makes possible the sale of the 


86 


goods from the producer to the jobber at the price that the producer 
sets, because the producer does not care what the jobber thinks of 
the worthwhileness of selling the goods to the dealer. Virtually, 
the jobber almost has to sell the goods to the dealer whether he 
wants to or not. 

However, you may have to cultivate the jobber and dealer in 
instances where it is possible for the dealer to shift the consumer’s 
desire from your product, which the consumer asks for, to some 
other, on which the dealer may make a few cents more per pair. If 
yours, then, is an article which is liable to substitution, you must 
also pay some attention to the dealer. In that event you may have 
to stimulate the dealer in your favor. But, on a patented article, 
which has no competition, you need not worry about the dealer, 
because he cannot switch the consumer over to something else. 


CHAPTER LV 
Distribution Through Exclusive Agencies. 


There is another system of distribution by which the producers 
have their own agents and their own retail stores, although they 
also sell in practically every hamlet in the country wherever they 
can get a grocer or a druggist or a confectionery store to put their 
goods on the counter. 

This is the system of many of the big candy companies. They 
have their own stores in some places. In other places they sell 
through the independent dealer’s store. In each locality, you must 
decide which way you want to use. If you, as a manufacturer, have 
your own retail branch, then the other dealers in that community 
feel reluctant to have to compete at retail with the manufacturer 
himself. Therefore, they would be unlikely to buy any goods from 
that same factory. 

In a system of this kind, by which you install your own retail 
outlets in some communities and use existing dealers’ stores in 
others, your advertising must be versatile. First, it must create a 
favorable atmosphere. As to its further details of method and pur- 
pose, particular conditions must determine. 

For instance, there would be the question whether as manu- 
facturer or jobber, you would appoint independent dealers as ex- 
clusive agents. This would mean that in a given locality, where 
you have no retail store of your own, you would have to choose be- 
tween the two that are now there. One is run by Frank Smith and 
the other by John Jones. Suppose your product is a certain kind of 
laundry soap. Your salesman goes to Smith and says: “Here, you 
be our exclusive agent in this town. We won't sell to Jones at all. 
Therefore, if you teach your customers that our soap is best, they 
can’t go to Jones for it, because Jones won’t have it. So, you see, 
it will be worth while for you to recommend and push my goods.” 
That is the idea of a system which includes the principle of ex- 


clusive agencies by which you sell your goods to only one dealer 
in each locality. 


87 


The objection to this method is that when you go to Smith 
and sell him your soap and say that Jones can’t have your soap, you 
cut down your possible market. You decrease the amount that 
you can sell. Each dealer has 500 customers, let us say. You get 
only the 500 possibles that Smith has. The 500 customers who deal 
at Jones’ are excluded as prospects. And yet, to the 500 cus- 
tomers that your chosen dealer has, you will probably sell more 
soap than if Smith did not handle it exclusively. Because, Smith 
now recommends it, and more of his own customers will probably 
buy than if Jones, too, had your soap. 

There are certain things which it is necessary to sell through 
exclusive agencies. Fine furniture—particularly sectional book 
cases—seem to be in this class. Such, as a rule, are sold solely 
through exclusive agencies, for the reason that each.one of them has 
broad competition. Each of these manufacturers must fight com- 
petitors who seek to sell at much lower prices. The persuasion of 
an intelligent salesman on the floor is required to make people 
willing tw pay the extra money that they have to pay for those par- 
ticular articles as against something nearly as good that they might 
get for less money. 

As a rule, the manufacturer who sells his goods by this ex- 
clusive agent distribution plan, does not try to work the same scheme 
in a big city, for the reason that here the dealers are not in such 
personal competition with each other. In the small town two or 
more dealers might be fighting each other tooth and nail, so that if 
Smith handled your goods, that might be one reason why Jones 
would not want to. 

That is the negative reason for a one-dealer-in-a-town sales 
system. The positive reason is that a salesman can get a dealer’s 
active co-operation if he lets him have the line exclusively. That 
would make a very good reason why Smith would want to sell your 
goods. Therefore, it follows, that this exclusive-agent distribution 
plan works best in the smaller places where there is a personal com- 
petition among the dealers. 

Where people figure carefully on the purchase of a particular 
commodity, there you find the persuasion of a personal salesman 
necessary. To get that factor in your favor, you must have the 
active co-operation of the store in which your goods are sold. The 
ideal of this kind of personal salesmanship is possible only in factory- 
owned stores. The next best way is by exclusive agencies. In some 
cases, a combination of those two plans, together with general retail 
handling in the biggest cities, may prove to be your best method of 
wholesale distribution. 


CHAPTER LVI 
General Retail Distribution. 


The purpose of an exclusive-agency plan of distribution is to 
get the dealer to back up your goods enthusiastically. If he does 
not do that, you lose. It would be better then that you had two 
different dealers in the town rather than just one. So to make your 


88 


exclusive-agency plan win out—you want to keep the dealer con- 
tinually stimulated to the virtues of your products. And that, as a 
rule, would be done through house organs and circular letters and so 
on to the dealer, as well as by personal salesmen. 


In that particular system, the manufacturer sometimes virtually 
finances the dealer. In some case of exclusive-agency distribution, 
the manufacturer will say, “Here, you put my goods in your store. 
You won’t run any risk. If you don’t sell them, I will take them 
back. If you do sell them, you pay me such-and-such a price for 
such as you sell.” That is what is known as “putting goods in on 
consignment.” 


But in the usual plan by which the manufacturer sells to all 
good dealers and the dealers sell to the consumer, the dealer takes all 
the risk. He is in business absolutely for himself. He buys from 
the manufacturer and that is where the manufacturer ends his part 
of the transaction. For the dealer then takes over the task to 
sell those goods. He sells them for whatever price he wants to 
quote, and on whatever terms he wants to offer. The merchandise 
is the dealer’s property, without strings of any kind. 


This kind of distribution must concern itself with the consumer, 
also, if itis to be a giant success. Because, if every dealer in a town, 
for instance, handles your soap, no dealer is going to particularly 
push it. So, in order to create a demand that will make the con- 
sumer ask for your product, you must advertise to the general! public. 


Still, by this system, however, of getting every possible dealer 
that you can to buy the goods from you and then sell them, you are 
able to get your goods into the greatest possible number of stores, 
if your price is right. If your possible territory is limited this plan 
is almost necessary. For instance, suppose you put out a line of 
dining room chairs. According to the way the freight rates are fixed, 
you cannot possibly sell any dining room chairs in Nebraska, if you 
have to ship from the East, because you have got to charge the 
dealer there so much more for your chairs than does the Chicago 
manufacturer. In other words, you have got to add on to your 
prices so much more so as to take care of the freight rate. Nor 
could you sell in Tennessee, because there the Chattanooga manu- 
facturer would probably be able to sell a chair for $4.50 that you 
could not offer to the dealer for under $5.00—on account of your 
handicap of freight rate. 


As a rule, when you sell by this general-dealer method you 
have got to take the least possible profit. The only reason a dealer 
will push your goods if all the other dealers handle them, is that he 
can make more money on your goods. Your soap, let us say, sells 
at 5c and costs the dealer 8c. Another soap costs the dealer 4c and 
‘that, too, sells for 5c. Another soap costs the dealer 334c and that 
also sells for a nickel. The usual dealer will sell your soap in that 
case whenever he can, because then instead of making 11%4c he would 
make 2c, because he would get your soap at 3c, instead of 334 or 4c. 

Through price then is about the only way that you could get 
the dealer to sell a lot of your goods if you do not enlist him in ac- 
tive support by granting him an exclusive agency. ‘To sell on price, 
pulls your profit down to the lowest possible bottom, because if you 


89 


sell that soap at 3c, you may be making only 4c per cake, whereas 
if you were to get 334c for it, you would be making nearly Ic on 
every piece. 


If you rely on the dealer to push your goods for no reason other 
than the extra large margin he will get through selling yours, you 
must cut your profit to the bone to make that possible. If you do 
this, a competitor may cut under you, and your business slides away 
unless you in turn go under him. That will either invite inferior 
quality in production, or heavy factory losses for you to swallow. 


On the other hand, if you give the dealer a fair margin, and 
make him sell your goods by making the public buy them from him, 
then your are constantly building up an indestructible asset of good- 
will, because to create that despite-the-dealer demand, you would 
use advertising. Advertising would not only thus insure fair busi- 
ness profit to you as a producer, as well as to the dealer, but would 
also insure the consuming public against any letting down of quality. 


CHAPTER LVI! 


Advertising and Dealer Distribution. 


The manufacturer who sells every dealer is tempted not to ad- 
vertise. He is tempted to give the extra margin profit to the dealer 
and thus get the dealer to sell a lot of his goods—therefore, to buy 
more and more. This will Keep the factory busy, even though 
what is sold is sold at but little profit, if any, for the manufacturer. 


Even then, it. would be necessary for you, continually, to drive 
home to the dealer the fact that he will make more money if he sells 
your goods. Here enters the necessity for a lot of so-called dealer 
literature. This includes the house-organ; a publication goes to the 
dealer periodically, and tells the dealer why he should tell his clerks 
to sell your soap whenever they can; why he should put your soap 
out on the counter and in the window; why, in general he should 
stimulate the sale of your soap in his store as much as possible. Of 
course, your appeal would be on the basis that this co-operation 
would mean money in the dealer’s pocket, for the reason that he 
would make so much more on your soap than if he sold some other 
kind on which he did not enjoy so long a margin of profit. 


There are lots of different ways by which this method of gen- 
eral dealer-distribution may be stimulated through advertising. There 
is the general campaign carried, for instance, with Fairy Soap. By 
this you would seek to keep your soap ever before the public so as 
to create a demand which would make the dealer sell your product 
whether he makes 1c per sale or whether he makes 1%c per unit. 
Such a campaign, as a rule, will require tremendous resources, be- 
cause if you spend $150,000 the first year to create a popular demand 
for your soap, you may not clean up enough profit to pay for that 
advertising. The advertising will be paid for by that cumulative 
repetitive demand—the snow-ball-like building-up of a business that 


90 


comes from the fact that the first trial so satisfies the users that 
they buy more. 


Most manufacturers have neither money enough nor faith 
enough in their product to try to establish a demand in that way. 
Therefore, they depend on that more cautious, more simple, and 
often more perilous system by which they sell to the dealer at little 
or no profit and depend upon the dealer’s covetousness to make him 
create your demand for you by getting behind your goods on ac- 
count of the extra retail profit they offer. 


For such goods as can be shown in catalogues, such as furni- 
ture, etc., such printed matter takes a large part of the advertising 
appropriation when this method of consumer-less distribution 1s 
used. These are really but part of the’sales effort, however, because 
they merely aid the traveling men in getting stock: into the dealer’s 
stores. For some of these catalogues, the dealer has to pay $50. 
But, if the dealer sells enough goods from that catalogue without 
having to buy those goods from the manufacturer until after he gets 
aH order from the consumer, then the catalogue is probably worth 

50.00. 


There are two ways to get your goods forced out to the public 
if you use this general dealer system of distribution. One is to 
create consumer demand through general advertising. The 
other is to get the dealer to push your goods on account of the 
fact that he will make a little more money on your goods. The for- 
mer method means a progressively large and secure volume of busi- 
ness. The latter involves many perils for producer, dealer and con- 
sumer. 


CRAPTER -LIVITE 


How To Get Distribution. 


After you have found what system of distribution you want to 
use, you could then line up a plan for a national campaign. This 
usually takes months and years, although there are some cases, like 
Wrigley’s Doublemint, in which complete distribution was secured 
in sixty days through newspaper advertising. 


The aim of a national campaign is to sell the greatest possible 
amount of goods. To do that it is necessary to create the greatest 
possible demand for the goods on the part of the consumers. But 
after you had created a demand for the goods, your campaign would 
fall flat if you had not taken care of the other factors which would 
facilitate the fulfillment of the demand created. 


For instance, if you simply went into the magazines and said 
that your soap was the best because of specified reasons—and that 
it was only 5c a cake instead of 10c. Still no matter how hard you 
_pushed your soap in this way nothing would come of your work if, 
in the meantime, you had not built up your machinery of distribu- 
tion. 


91 


The jobbers should have your soap in their warehouse ready to 
let the dealer have a stock before the consumer went to the dealer 
and asked for your brand. In a way, this system might involve 
that the demand for your goods would, of itself, force the dealer to 
carry your goods to satisfy the consumer. In turn, this would force 
the jobber to carry your goods to accommodate the dealer. 


There are several ways by which you might create this con- 
sumer-demand. For instance, you might adopt a campaign which 
would call for full pages in national weeklies, or large space in gen- 
eral magazines, or extensive use of street car cards. Then you 
might gather your sales organization and say: 

“We will start to manufacture ‘Such-and-Such’ soap next 
month. We will advertise it in this way. Most people will want so 
good a soap at so low a price. We will tell the public about it in 
this strong way. So you go out and stock the dealers.” 


The salesman goes out. He has copies of the proposed Se on 
a big sheet and he tells the dealer something like this: 


“Here’s a new soap. You get it for 3%c a cake and sell it for 
5c. That makes a good profit for you. Moreover, you are going to 
sell a great deal of it because look at all the advertising we are 
going todo. A lot of people will come in and ask for the at Bet- 
ter take a couple of gross.’ 


The dealer may order a few gross. Then the siieenan goes 
around and sees the other dealers. At the end of a week he may 
have about 50 gross on his order book. Then he goes to the jobber 
in that particular section and tells him what he has done. The job- 
ber offers to take over the orders for those local dealers. He also 
orders an additional 20 gross, on the expectation that the dealers 
will want more as soon as the advertising begins to pull the soap off 
their shelves. 

Such a system of distribution in advance of demand was in 
vogue some years ago. But unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, 
a good many of those promised avalanches of demand never came. 
The dealer who put the goods in his store found that the advertising 
would cause hardly a dozen or so to move. He took his medicine. 
But, when another salesman came around with a similar proposition 
he would say: “Well, I will take a dozen and if it goes the first 
day or so I can get another dozen from my jobber.” 


CHAPTER LIX 
Step-By-Step Distribution. 


The over-stocking of dealers on promise of consumer demand 
to come is almost obsolete. In its last analysis, such a system 1s 
unbusinesslike. Yet, there is a method which is even worse—that is 
to run your advertising i in the big general publications without first . 
making sure that the consumers can get your goods from the dealer 
when they ask for them. The dealer might thus be humiliated by 


-92 


saying that he did not have your advertised soap. And he would 
be apt to ask his jobber for 1-6 of a dozen or as many as he actually 
needed. But this method of letting distribution follow the creation 
of demand is of such tremendous waste that it is very seldom used. 


Suppose, for instance, that you were spending $5000 for a page 
in a national periodical. Suppose in a town of 10,000 there are 500 
people who read that paper. Suppose 50 of them see your advertise- 
ment and go to John Smith’s grocery for a cake or so. If they do 
that, they will probably do so the day after they see your ad. Smith 
will not have your soap, so the consumer is apt to say, “All right, 
give me the usual kind.” And next week when the dealer has your 
soap, Mrs. Consumer will have forgotten your ad. Therefore, all 
the money you spent in that magazine in that town in order to get 
50 people to go to that store, would have been wasted. 

A safer and surer method to secure distribution is by a slower 
way—by which you get your goods into a dealer’s store on the 
promise that you will use newspaper space in his town. If you 
work this system—town by town and state by state, you can eventu- 
ally get the country covered. 

The dealer’s personal experience with your goods and through 
the personal connection that he will have with your brand as a 
result of the advertising of your. goods in his own local newspaper 
over his name—these factors will cause him to co-operate for the 
sale of your goods. Then, if you decide to make an appropriation 
for the broad general mediums you will not be so liable to leaks in 
your advertising effectiveness. 


In marketing a new soap, you could not get most dealers to put 
in a stock, unless, consumer demand required that he make such in- 
vestment, or, unless your goods were to yield him a bigger margin 
than he originally could get. This would probably mean that you 
would have to sell your goods to the dealer for less money than you 
ought to—or it would at least mean that your profit would be cut to 
the bone. 


But, if you said to the dealer: “Here is some advertising that 
we will run in your local paper,” then the dealer cannot help but 
stock your goods to some extent. If his name is to go under the 
ads, then he will probably stock quite liberally. Thus by offering 
newspaper advertising you can get your distribution well built up, 
step by step. How much better is this method than the old system 
of persuading dealers to stock up through the promise of general 
national advertising to come. When the newspapers are the basis 
of a campaign, the dealer knows what the results will be for him. 


So if you use the splurge method by which you seek to force 
distribution by blanketing the nation with periodical advertising, do 
not overestimate results. In the long run, such a method may win 
out handsomely, although the first few years may show more adver- 
tising expenditure than sales-income. But, if you are content to 
develop your market gradually, step by step, with newspaper adver- 
tising, then, as fast as you get one territory yielding a profit, you 
can use that sales-income to start your harvest in another field, 
meanwhile keeping your first soil well fertilized with publicity. 


93 


CHAPTER LX 


The Salesman Who Knows Advertising. 


In a general, through-the-dealer plan of national distribution, 
there is the question of sales organization. Sales organization is 
not only important, but, also, it is primary. This is one of the first 
considerations. 


You have your product and you have your field. Now, you 
must find out how to distribute your goods so as to put them on 
hand for the consumers to get them when your advertising has cre- 
ated a demand. You must decide this sales question before you 
decide any question as to medium or copy or any of the other ad- 
vertising details. 


Some of the biggest successes in advertising have had as their 
keystone this efficiency of sales organization. Salesmen, more and 
more, must know advertising. That is why many in advertising 
ranks today, engaged in work along advertising lines, are former 
salesmen. Part of the function of the man in the field selling goods 
is to make the dealer understand advertising, so that he will know 
how this advertised article will be better for him to push than one 
that is not advertised. 


The salesman, in such cases, takes the argument from mere 
quality of goods, or mere price, to the question of how much can the 
dealer make from the goods. In other words, the question of profit 
to the dealer becomes paramount. That always involves a question 
of the advertising’s results—whether that advertising be national 
and general, as applied to the dealer’s interest, or whether it be 
localized and done over the dealer’s name. And so, in connection 
with the advertising campaigns in which it is hard to get the team- 
work of the dealers, the necessity frequently arises for the manufac- 
turer to train his salesmen in the principles of advertising. 


Although it is necessary for the salesman to help personally to 
make the advertising effective, it is also often true that advertising 
is the salesman’s best friend. In many schemes that have been put 
out for the stimulation of the salesmen, the power of advertising has 
been the basis. By this plan, the salesman would have something 
more to present than just the goods and the price. He could also 
offer some real help by way of advertising aid. For, the broad- 
minded dealer is more interested in the possibilities of his advertis- 
ing than any other phase of his business program. 


From the salesman’s viewpoint, he helps himself by enlisting 
advertising in his efforts. The usual salesman can only discuss 
quality, and price, and other things which have to do with the 
seller’s side of the fence. These considerations are all in terms of 
“me” and “us.” So they do not strike the selfish ego of the dealer. 
But the salesman who sells on the basis of advertisability of his 
goods, or the advertisedness of his goods, talks about how much 
more economical it will be for him to handle them, for the reason 
that so much less effort will be required in the selling. 


94 


As a result, the salesman who sells in that way, talks about 
the dealer’s side of the fence. He talks to the dealer in terms of 
“you” and “your’—rather than of “me” and “us.” And, every dealer, 
being human, is more interested in “you” and “your” than in “me” 
auue Mine. 


So the salesman does best if he sells on the basis of advertis- 
ing. . For if he knows the rudiments of advertising in a way that 
enables him to help the dealer he is unique. He is the man that the 
dealer is glad to see. Surely, this asset helps the salesman because 
the dealer cannot help but feel that such a salesman is thinking of 
his (the dealer’s) profit. Therefore, this type of traveler is more 
likely to sell a dealer, than if the whole atmosphere were fraught 
with the “me” and “mine” of the manufacturer. 


CHAPTER LXI 


Sales Advertising Co-Operation. 


Quite often the trouble with advertising is a lack of co-operation 
on the part of the sales organization. Many failures can be traced 
to that cause. For if a sales organization does not hitch up to a 
publicity campaign, the advertising may flunk. 


Still, there is danger that the sales organization may over- 
estimate the ability of the advertising to move goods. In the old 
days when national advertising first began to have its fling, sales- 
men would exhibit great big sheets, one side of which might show 
the front pages of a number of magazines and thus prove the im- 
mensity of combined circulation, while on the other side there would 
be pictures of the ads which were to be run. 


The salesman would spread this great big sheet out in front of 
the dealer and tell him that this meant a land-slide of demand. The 
dealer would not know. He might be overcome by the mystery of 
this thing called national advertising, and agree with the salesman. 
Thus, he might put on his shelf a lot more goods than he ought to. 


As a result, if these were packaged goods, they would soon get 
musty. People would not want packages that looked dirty. Thus, 
in that way the force of the advertising that was done would be 
negatived. And the dealer, mad at those shop-worn goods on his 
shelves, would berate advertising because of his disappointment. 


That abuse of advertising, on the part of the sales force is now 
pretty nearly a thing of the past. The American dealer today can 
pretty well estimate how much demand there is going to be on the 
basis of a certain advertising proposition. Anyway, he knows that 
most of the goods which are advertised in this national way, can 
easily be got from his jobber. Consequently, he puts in but little 
stock. He can get additional goods so quickly that he need not pile 
up his shelves with stock. 


95 


To overcome this tendency, by which the dealer buys sparingly, 
some manufacturers have abused advertising in another way. Their 
salesman goes to a dealer and says “We are going to run this ad- 
vertising campaign this Fall. You had better stock up.” When 
the dealer answers “Well, I’ll take half a dozen and if they go 
fast, I can get a gross of them within a day from my jobber,” the 
salesman says: “Well, if you will buy a gross from me now, I will 
put in an extra dozen free.” : 

That is called a “free deal.” The purpose is to make the dealer 
fill his shelves so that he will put all his might into getting rid of 
your goods and in that way exercise a positive co-operation. But 
as a rule, this turns out the opposite way. ‘The dealer forgets that 
he got an extra dozen by buying a large quantity. He remembers 
that he has all those goods on his shelves and that they lose in value 
every minute they grow dirtier and staler. Therefore, he forms a 
prejudice. He is apt to get sick of your goods and close them out at 
a price. Then, in the future, he will try to sell your competitor’s 
brand instead of yours. 


According to certain investigations, it would seem that the 
dealer’s co-operation is vital. Some statistics show he is in con- 
trol. Based on a large numbet of cases in Chicago, it was found 
that in 55 instances out of 100, the dealer was relied upon to decide 
what brand of a certain kind of goods the consumer would buy. This 
power of the dealer to turn the desire from one brand to another 
has largely influenced the trend of advertising thought. It has 
caused many manufacturers to localize their advertising in the news- 
papers, and to put their publicity over the local dealer’s name. 


A dealer’s co-operation can be made sure of if you connect his 
name with your localized advertising. Also, you can use such ad- 
vertising as a means to increase the efficiency of your sales organiza- 
tion in their work with the dealers. For instance, if you have a 
soap to put on the market, instead of spending $50,000 in a national 
weekly, and $20,000 in a general magazine or so, you can develop 
the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, this year 
and take care of the other states as convenient. 


In this Eastern section, you have fifty million people. You 
can divide your appropriation among those fifty million people and 
find how many inches of copy you can afford to run in the best news- 
paper in every town in which you get a dealer. Your salesman can 
go to Mr. Jones of Lockport and say “We are going to run these 
ads in the Lockport Union-Sun. We think that they will sell for 
you 300 cakes of our new soap and also bring other trade into your 
store. We will put your name under this advertising and will tell 
the Lockport public that our new soap can be had here.” Mr. Jones 
will order some soap. He will not try to change the mind of those 
who come in for that soap, because he has publicly announced that 
he keeps it and thus he has, at least passively, recommended its qual- 
ity. So you are sure then, at least, that you will not have Mr. Jones’ 
antagonism. You are also sure that Lockport people will know 
where to get your soap. Moreover, you may feel fairly certain that 
Mr. Jones will continue to co-operate as long as your soap satisfies 
his trade. 


96 


CHAPTER iio0 Tir 


How Advertising Helps, Help Salesmen. 


The salesman who has no advertising assistance to offer, can 
still increase his efficiency by the use of advertising knowledge. He, 
too, can sort of win the dealer’s favor through the fact that he sells 
on the basis of the advertisability of his goods. For, it is only 
natural that your salesman can do better if he tells the dealer how 
your soap will bring people to his store and how he can advertise it 
as a great big bar for 5c in a way that will advertise his store in 
general. Talking thus in terms of the dealer's own merchandising 
problems and bringing out the points that will make it seem wise 
for him to handle your soap, the dealer will be more apt to think 
of your soap the next time his general soap stock is low. So in this 
way, this iridirect use of advertising by your salesman will help him 
both in his present and repetitive selling. 

The advertised article, quite often, is a guaranteed article. A 
guarantee, after all, is only a sort of an advertising statement of 
quality. For the guarantee simply announces in an untechnical way 
a summary of the virtues of the article. When knitting mills guar- 
antee their hosiery, they might tell at length how it is made of 
certain material, on certain kinds of machines, under certain condi- 
tions, and packed in a certain way so that they can afford to take 
the risk of making good in case said hosiery does not last as it 
should. But instead of going into all those details, which would all 
be on their side of the fence—that is about themselves—instead of 
that they simply make an advertising statement and say that if the 
goods don’t last for a specified length of time, they will make good. 

In some fields this guarantee idea seems to have been over- 
worked. So many things have been guaranteed, that no longer does 
the fact of a guarantee arouse interest as of yore. And yet, even 
today it is often the best method by which to present the arguments 
of quality, because the guarantee is so final and so convincing. For 
the guarantee shifts the risk from the buyer to the maker. 

The guarantee is an advertising feature designed to help out 
both the selling and the advertising of your product. It is not 
merely a negative talking point which removes the possible objection 
to quality at one stroke, but also it is positively persuasive in that 
it creates an atmosphere of “you’’—because it talks in the terms of 
the interest of the prospect rather than of the person who seeks to 
sell. This not only energizes the advertising in reaching the con- 
sumer, but also helps the sales force in reaching the dealer. 

Advertising increases the efficiency of the salesman’s work 
with a given dealer even when he is away. If the advertising is of 
a localized system—for instance, with newspaper publicity appear- 
ing over the dealer’s name—then every day that that publicity ap- 
pears there is an influence on the dealer. He both sees the ad in 
the paper himself and therefore thinks of your soap, and also 
people come in and say: “I saw your ad in today’s paper. Give 
me a bar of that new soap.” This sort of tickling of the dealer’s in- 
terest is almost as effective as if the salesman were to call him by 


7 97 


*phone each time and say: “Don’t forget to try to sell our soap if 
you can.” : 

So the salesman who has advertising behind him, has a team- 
mate that works for him with the dealer, even when the salesman is 
not there. Likewise, the advertising that is done by the house direct 
to the dealer, works for the salesman, too. House organs and cir- 
cular letters tell the dealer by mail, the arguments which the sales- 
man would tell him by word of mouth. Consequently, such matter 
keeps up the dealer’s interest in the goods. And, in these days of 
competition, it is necessary to keep eternally at the dealer. For 
instance: A salesman in Pennsylvania who worked around Pitts- 
burgh for a Buffalo wholesale house, started off on a two weeks’ 
vacation. He got anxious after one week and came back to his 
territory and found he was just in time. His competitors had been 
on the job. He had almost let his dealers run for too long. His 
firm wanted him to go up into Wisconsin to work a territory there in 
an experimental way. This would require only two weeks. He 
was the only man in the organization that could do it and yet, rather 
than risk part of their territory around Pittsburgh, consisting of a 
few populous counties, the jobber had to let go the whole State of 
Wisconsin from his market. 

If that jobber had kept a stream of advertising flowing in to 
those dealers, or if he had advertising running in those towns over 
the dealers’ names, that salesman would not have been so in danger 
of losing his trade whenever he left the territory for a fortnight. 


CHAR TR Lab 


Advertising Prevents Price Suicide. 


The most dangerous way to sell is on the basis of price. If 
your argument is real—if your price is lower—then this is because 
of one of two reasons. Either it is due to greater efficiency, or else, 
to lesser profit. If greater efficiency be the cause, you can sell on 
price alright. But alas, too often, lowness of price is caused by cut- 
ting profit. 

The manufacturer or the wholesaler is apt to say: “We will 
sell this thing at practically cost this year. Thus, we will get a big 
business started. Then next year we will raise the price and make a 
little money.” But next year he tries to raise the price when some 
one else lowers their price, so down goes the price again. Accord- 
ingly, he may have to go through all the hard work of running his 
business for another year—with all the risk of investment and with- 
out a cent of profit. 

Too many big businesses are run in that way, because they try 
to sell at lower prices than they can afford. One way to dodge this 
danger, is to bring in some element which will make it profitable 
for dealers to handle your products and sell them, whether they 
have to pay a little more for them or not. For instance, a special 


98 


design in the goods may make it possible for the dealer to get more 
money for your brand than for other things of a similar kind. A 
patented difference of some kind may yield this same result. 

But, in a good many things, all novel ideas seem to have been 
run to the ground. Then it is necessary to sell just what your com- 
petitors sell. In that. event, the best way to steer away from the 
danger of selling on price is to put your case on the basis of the 
dealer’s profit. The best way to do that is to adopt some sort of an 
advertising element which will enable you to make your argument 
the advertisability of the goods and their consequent profitability to 
the dealer. 

The salesman who sells goods on the basis of their advertisa- 
bility, does not have to cut his price in order to get business. There- 
fore, the manufacturer whose goods are sold on this basis is not 
tempted to cut down the quality of his products in order to make 
possible a little profit. This evasion of the price whirlpool also 
helps the dealer. 

The merchandise manager of a big department store, noted for 
its bargains, recently cited a good case in proof of this point. The 
women’s suit buyer came to him and, with tears in her eyes, she 
said that her year’s business in her department would have to show 
a loss. 

“Why?” the merchandise man asked her. 

“Because,” she replied, “the shoppers have reported that all 
over town the other department stores are cutting their prices on 
women’s suits. We have got to do so, too.” 

The merchandise man agreed that was true, but he did not 
let the buyer leave his office without this word of advice: 

“Tf you had put in that advertised line, you would not have to 
sell your stock at a loss. Then you would have had a kind of goods 
that no other local stores had. Then you would not have to fear 
comparison, because people could not compare. For, even if other 
suits were being sold at lower prices, your advertised suits woula 
be sold by you at as low as any goods of that brand.” | 


CHAPTER LXIV 
Details of a General Campaign. 


A general national advertising campaign has to do mainly with 
the creation of demand. Such publicity must reach the consumer, 
whether it be through street car cards or magazines or newspapers 
or how. 

You have found your product. You have settled your manu- 
facturing problems. You nave decided on the method of distribu- 
tion. You have got your sales organization. After all those big 
details are settled, you are at last ready. to start on the advertising 
details. 

If you are a big enough organization, you have an advertising 
manager. He has studied your distribution. He has worked with 


99 


your sales manager to find out from the salesmen what sort of com- 
petition you are up against, what the market is, and what are the 
possibilities of repeat on your goods. Maybe, then, after you have 
found out all these different details in regard to your market, in re- 
gard to the prospect and in regard to the very product itseli—then 
you can decide on a certain line of campaign to fit in with the con- 
ditions which surround your particular problem. Now, if you have 
not already done so, you will probably call in an advertising agency. 
An advertising agency is an organization which is supported by the 
publications, and other mediums. You tell this advertising agent 
that you have decided that you can afford to spend $100,000 the first 
year on an advertising campaign to create a demand for your 
product. 

Meanwhile, your advertising manager, probably, has a certain 
plan in mind. The agency looks over this plan. Undoubtedly they 
suggest changes. They offer amendments based on their experience 
with other articles, whether similar or otherwise. And then, after 
all the details of analysis have been settled, you authorize your 
agency to begin to place your contracts. — 

For instance, suppose you have decided to spend $50,000 in 
street car cards and $50,000 in newspapers, to comprise 100 different 
newspapers—an average of $500 each. The agency will make con- 
tracts with those newspapers in your behalf. They agree to use in 
your behalf so many inches of space in each town. They also make 
contracts with the street railway advertising companies for a cer- 
tain number of cards in these certain towns. 


If you were to go to these newspapers direct and buy $50,000 
worth of space, it would cost you $50,000 anyway, and to make 
these contracts would take a lot of your time. A recognized agency, 
however, is allowed from 10% to 15% commission by the news- 
papers on all out of town business secured by the agency. That is 
where the agency gets its pay. Therefore, as a rule, you can get, 
without extra expense, the service of an agency, which would mean 
their counsel in building your plan and their aid in creating your 
copy and art work, as well as all the clerical labor that is necessary. 
All this would not cost you a cent more than if you were to try 
to place your advertising direct. 


So your advertising manager decides, in conference with your 
agency, on the best course of action. Then they arrange the dates 
for insertion of the advertisements. If your advertising de- 
partment simply had to take care of the creation of these few ad- 
vertisements, in connection with this single campaign, there would 
not be much need of an advertising department. But, they have a 
lot more than that to do. They have to get out booklets, for in- 
stance, and other follow-up literature—because these advertisements 
that are to run in the newspapers may have coupons at the bottom 
of them. Then the readers who are interested in your announce- 
ment will write to you and ask for more information. You may have 
to send them a little sample, and a booklet which will tell why you 
think your product better than others. 

And so, in this creation of booklets and in the execution of this 
system of taking care of inquiries and sending out that literature and 


100 


those samples, your advertising department will have a tremendous 
amount of detail to attend to.. In these matters, you cannot expect 
the agency to help much, except by way of advice and counsel. In 
the simple conduct of your advertising, there will be enough clerical, 
art and copy work, so that your agency will make a very small net 
profit on the advertising they place for you. 


CHAP TEREX, 


Advertising to Win the Dealer. 


As a rule, the advertising department of the factory or whole- 
sale house takes care of all the details of the direct advertising to the 
trade. And, this work with the dealer must be done. You must 
realize from the first that you are not the only manufacturer in 
your line. You have competition not only for the favor of the pub- 
lic, but also for fair treatment by the dealer. You have to cater to 
him. You have to prove to him that your goods are worth his sup- 
port, or at least get him not to knock them. 

Here enters a vast field of advertising mediums known as the 
trade publications. Almost every single trade in the country, from 
tobacco through to lumber, has one or many such trade journals. 
These deal directly with the problems of the trade that they serve 
and are usually read rather religiously by the dealer, although often 
there are so many such publications that the dealer always expects 
to read them but never does. 

These trade journals are purely business propositions with the 
dealer. He feels justified in taking the time to go through them. 
Therefore, to get the dealer’s interest and co-operation in support of 
your other advertising efforts, these trade journals offer you a good 
opportunity for reaching your dealer-customers. 

The trade journal, as a rule, is confidential to that trade. The 
public knows nothing of it and is supposed not to see its contents. 
Therefore, you can tell the dealer in the trade journal how much he 
can make on every bar of your soap he sells. That, of course, is a 
mighty good argument why the dealer should sell it, but is a poor 
argument why the public should buy it. 

So, you see, in these trade journals you can talk to the dealer 
in a private way and tell him, almost in a whisper, just where he 
comes in on your proposition. Likewise, these trade journals are 
valuable to you in building up that spirit of co-operation which you 
need to help back up your other advertising. Of course, there are 
objections to these publications. For one thing, they cost high com- 
pared with their circulations. Also, they are apt to be so crowded 
with advertising that even though you have a full page, you may 
be lost in the shuffle. 

Therefore, your advertising department may decide that the 
trade journals may not be, of themselves, sufficiently strong in their 
ability to carry your message to the dealer. Then you would have 


101 


to go to the dealer through an entirely different system. You may 
decide to get out a letter every week. You may decide to send a 
telegram now and then. Or, perhaps, once a month, you will pub- 
lish a house organ and send it to the dealers. 

One big national advertiser has a house organ, which is almost 
a regular magazine. This goes to thousands of automobile owners, 
but is mainly meant for a selected list of 20,000 automobile dealers. 
This publication costs $50,000 a year. But it hammers home this 
manufacturer’s argument to those 20,000 dealers month in and month 
out. 

This magazine talks in the terms of the layman—the man on 
the other side of the fence. It explains the most technical engi- 
neering points in the simplest words. Anyone can understand what 
they mean. They try hard to make their message untechnical. And 
yet they are talking to men who are supposed to know the tech- 
nical side of automobile engineering. 

The advertising department of this factory pays much more at- 
tention to that house organ than to the expenditure of three times 
as much money in the magazines and other mediums which they 
use. They feel that the education of the dealer in their favor is the 
crucial point of their campaign. And this is only one of the many 
instances in which the manufacturer has found it worth while to 
carry on two inter-related advertising campaigns—one to win the 
consumer, and the other to clinch the dealer’s intelligent team- 
work. 


CHAPTER LXVI 
The Dealer’s Store as a Medium. 


To link up your advertising with the dealer’s, you may want to 
use his store as a medium. You may want to install lithographed 
signs, window displays, and many other kinds of selling aids inside the 
dealer’s place of business. 

This phase of advertising will probably use up as much time of 
the advertising department as any other part of the work. For one 
thing, there is so much danger of waste. So much of this kind of ad- 
vertising matter is sent out which seldom gets from the room where it 
is unpacked into the front of the store where it should be. 

As a result, manufacturers vie with one another to get matter 
which is so attractive that the dealer will naturally deem it of suffi- 
cient value to deserve a place in the front of his store. Some adver- 
tisers give away signs which cost $4 each. And this is only a window 
sign. They feel that this is worth the money because they will be sure 
of a place in the window and its exhibition there will more than pay 
for the cost before the sign has finished its term of duty. 

The dealer’s window is so big a part in national advertising to- 
day, as a link between the dealer and the manufacturer’s national ad- 
vertising, that one city syndicate has been formed to lease the window 
space in certain stores in a certain district. These windows leave the 


102 


management of the man who owns the store. The syndicate which 


pos the window has the right to put into it whatever that company 
esires. 


So, instead of the manufacturer getting space in those windows 
for nothing, he has to pay fairly large rental to the syndicate for every 
minute that his display is in those windows. And this tendency to 
charge for window space is on the increase. 


In order better to systematize the use of the dealer’s windows, an 
effort has been made by certain big advertisers to get an organization 
of men to do nothing else but install window displays. One big asso- 
ciation of advertising managers, through Walter P. Werheim, has 
worked for over two years on a plan to institute some sort of a ma- 
chinery of men, so as to make it possible for a big advertiser to hand 
out 2,000 window displays and say: ‘‘Here, put these displays into 
2,000 windows, according to the following list of stores. We will pay 
you such-and-such an amount for this work.” 


The idea back of store displays is that a person comes into a 
store and wants soap, for instance. She will see the name of your 
brand in the window and therefore is likely to ask for your kind. The 
trouble is that everybody tries to help sales by this method. And, of 
course, the more signs there are around a dealer’s store, the less apt 
you are to have your sign seen. Likewise, the more signs there are, 
the cheaper the dealer’s store looks. And so, the tendency toward 
putting all sorts of signs over the dealer’s place of business is on the 
wane. The tendency these days is to put good signs in the dealer’s 
shop. That tendency is on the increase. 


The advertising department would have to take care of these 
dealer’s aids and, in this regard, would have to work very closely with 
the selling organization. There is so much waste in the distribution 
of this kind of advertising matter that, just the very fact of so much 
going to waste often makes such efforts unprofitable. Whereas, if the 
salesman makes arrangements for the delivery of the signs himself, 
there will be no loss. But, unfortunately, the salesman has so many 
grips to carry that it is hard to get him to carry signs too. 

Another way, is to have a special order blank so that, after the 
salesman makes arrangements for the purchase of the goods, he asks 
the dealer what aids he wants by way of advertising. Then he puts 
down a list on this special order blank and he has the dealer put his 
signature to a promise that he will use this ad matter conscientiously. 
Most dealers are honest and, as a result, this written promise insures a 
more efficient distribution of the advertising matter. 

One manufacturer tried to distribute a window transfer. He had 
5,000 dealers to whom he sold at least once every three or four 
months, He ordered only 2,000 of these transfers, lest some of his 
dealers might not be anxious to have one of these signs. Before he 
finished, he had to offer prizes in order to get those 2,000 transfers 
stuck up on dealers’ windows. Yet he had 25 salesmen to help get 
those signs put to work. 


It is easy to buy signs, etc., to link up your name with the dealer’s 
store. But, before you place an order, make sure that you can get 
them utilized by the dealers. 


103 


CHAPTER LXVII 


Chain Stores’ Effect on Advertising. 


A modern tendency toward the syndication of retail stores into 
chains has much to do today with the advertising problems which a 
manufacturer must face today. These chain outlets change the sell- 
ing conditions, also, because instead of having to persuade 700 indi- 
vidual store owners to stock your goods, you need to persuade only 
one chief buyer who will decide on your proposition for the 700 stores 
which comprise his syndicate. 

Today, there are over 2,000 of these retail syndicates, compris- 
ing over 25,000 retail stores. Some of these are simply the private 
outlets of factories and are, therefore, directly controlled by the manu- 
facturers for the exclusive sale of their particular products. Others 
are simply retail chains which buy in the open market and sell on 
price. Their buying efficiency and their ability to locate stores to the 
best advantage, gives them a power to offer goods at rock bottom 
prices. 

The argument of these stores is mainly that of bargain. Their 
favorite method of driving home this point of attraction is to cut the 
price on an article which the advertising has made known. Such arti- 
cles are wanted and they are recognized as being worth a certain figure. 
When the chain stores offer them for less than that regular price, 
many customers are, by that fact, lured into the stores. The chain 
stores do not possess any great advantage as to cost of doing business. 
Usually, the financing of the chains involves an investment which, 
coupled with the usual individual store’s capital, might seem over cap- 
italized. Thus, although the individual might have more actual work- 
ing overhead expense to take care of, he would not have as great a 
comparative investment on which to pay dividends. 

Therefore, the idea that the syndicate store can sell the same 
goods at much less than the individual seller is often erroneous. This 
impression is frequently created by.the fact that the chain offers a few 
articles of well known regular price at less than usual. These isolated 
instances make the public think that these cut prices are indicative of 
the superior value which the chain stores can render. 

Meanwhile, the independent stores are overcoming the start 
which the chains seem to have secured in the past few years. The 
independents have learned many points of efficiency from the syndi- 
cates. They have caught on to the details of organization and the 
value of standardized ways of carrying on their business. These im- 
provements are making the independent store fear the chain competi- 
tion less and less every day. 

The public will continue to patronize the chain stores to consid- 
erable extent. But in the main, human nature will make people like 
to deal at a place that has a personality. The chain establishments have 
good managers, but these managers, after all, are but employees. They 
cannot get the same personal hold on their trade as is possible with the 
man whose name adorns the sign out in front. 

He and the other independents are willing to sell the nationally 
advertised goods at proper prices. Such store owners know that in 


104 


the long run, the average person would rather have the guarantee of 
quality which comes from the standardized trade-mark, than they 
would the few cents’ saving possible under the cut price policy. They 
know, also, that the public has more faith in their stores if they carry 
the goods of big repute, than if they seek to substitute and to force to 
the front inferior private brands of their own. 

Some big manufacturers have such faith in the future that they 
refuse to sell the chain stores, for fear the chain stores will cut the 
price on their product and in that way make competitive dealers un- 
willing to handle their goods. To shut off 20,000 possible outlets in 
this way takes courage, 


CHAPTER LXVIII 
How to Key Advertising Results. 


There are two big phases of advertising between which you will 
have to choose. Even though you have decided to use the big, broad, 
general publications, too, you can select the kind of publicity which 
simply familiarizes the public with your product. Or you can make 
an attempt for direct results. 

The usual soap ad which simply shows the idea that this will 
chase dirt, is the publicity style. Such simply tends to attract the 
greatest amount of possible attention, and by so doing make the name 
of the product so much a part of the consumer’s mind that the next 
time she goes into the grocery store for soap, she will unconsciously 
ask for that brand. 

The other way to advertise is the way, for instance, that some 
confectioners do. They advertise the name of their products, but they 
also make an effort to get the reader to send in a few cents for a sam- 
ple box, so that she can taste how good they are. Some chemists try 
to do that same thing—_they seek to get you to send in for a sample 
tube of their tooth paste. 

This action-getting kind of advertising, as a rule, can be better 
traced as to its results than the general publicity kind. If $500 ina 
certain national publicity campaign will bring only 500 requests for a 
10c sample of your goods, and if $500 in another magazine brings 
600 inquiries, then you can see that the latter is better for that pur- 
pose of advertising your product. 

Still another way to carry on a general publicity campaign and 
seek to key results is to use the advertising as a means to distribute 
literature. Many large advertisers use this system. They announce a 
booklet to be had on request. The idea is to make the advertisement 
itself tell enough of the story so as to make the reader say, ‘Well, 
that’s a pretty good thing.’’ With interest thus created, the fuller ex- 
planation of virtues which the booklet makes possible may create an 
active desire in the reader and thus cause a sale. 

As to the value of offering a booklet in your advertising, one big 
concern tried both ways. Six ads which did not feature a booklet pro- 


105 


duced a total of but 231 inquiries and 57 sales. Two ads only, which 
featured a book produced 644 inquiries and 434 sales. 

To key an ad means to tag it with a sign of some sort so that you 
can tell which magazine produced the inquiry which resulted from that 
advertisement. For this purpose, the coupon is a favorable method. 
About ten years ago the coupon was a new idea. Advertisers found it 
was a great success. But so many used it that people got accustomed 
to seeing them and their effectiveness waned. 

Still, the coupon has elements which make it worth white if you 
have space. The theory is simply that the coupon suggests to the 
mind the idea to inquire for further information. Also, it appeals to 
laziness of prospect, since it obviates the necessity to go and get a piece 
of stationery. Those two factors have made the coupon so successful 
as a means to increase the number of answers that an ad will pro- 
duce——as against what that same advertisement would bring if it had 
no coupon. 


CHAPTER LXIX 


Sampling’s Part in a Campaign. 


Another way to convert the influence of general advertising into 
concrete results is through sampling——aggressive giving away of sam- 
ples by personal house to house distribution, or sending them to a 
selected list. 

This method is worked so thoroughly, that in almost every town 
in the country there is an official distributor whose business it is to 
deliver samples and booklets in that locality. A big coffee roaster 
found sampling the solution of one of his problems in this way. He 
sells his coffee to the dealer at about 25c a pound. The dealer gets 
30c a pound for it, and it is advertised at that price. 

In order to get every dealer to stock up with his brand of coffee, 
this roaster had to have some mighty good argument as to why a 
dealer should be forced to get only a nickel a pound profit on this 
kind, instead of his usual dime margin. His argument was that it is 
so much easier for the dealer to sell his brand on account of the adver- 
tising and because of the fact that the public would get such a big 
value for their money when they bought his brand. That fact would 
also tend to bring more customers to the dealer. 

To prove that point, this man had a number of young women go 
out through the neighborhood and call at the homes in the dealer’s 
locality. They explained about the coffee and asked for the privilege 
of going in and making a cup of coffee for the woman of the house. 

They did that well. The coffee proved so good that the woman 
would be apt to say, ‘““You may enter my order for a pound.’’ These 
Canvassers, or samplers, would gather these orders and then go to the 
grocery store and say, ‘‘Here are orders for fifty pounds, and of these 


106 


fifty people I guess there are about forty of them to whom you do not 
sell. Possibly about thirty buy their coffee from some New York mail 
order house or from some tea and coffee store. So if you will sell our 
brand, why you will have all these customers. You may not make so 
much on ours, but in the long run you will make more money.”’ 

Thus the advertising which is done on this brand of coffee, helps 
the dealer’s general business as well as promotes his coffee sales. This 
use of sampling or personal canvassing, need be but temporary. Once 
a field is covered, distribution secured and demand created, the sales 
can be kept up by advertising without further personal work. 

In fact, sampling should not be relied upon of itself. Newspaper 
advertising should accompany the work. Otherwise, the sample is an 
unknown (and therefore, suspected) intruder. If its name be made 
familiar and respected by black-and-white introduction through a friend 
such as the newspaper, then the recipient’s attitude is: ‘‘Oh yes—this 
is a sample of So-and-So. I know about this. I’ll try it.’”” The reason 
“they know about it” is that the manufacturer has told them about it 
through advertising. 

As a rule, sampling is but an adjunct to printed advertising. The 
harder an article is to understand, the more suitable sampling is. In 
fact some things are so difficult of explanation that you cannot convey 
their desirability through word and picture. Even sampling won’t do. 
You have to demonstrate—to show people not only the article, but 
how it works. 

If your product is so hard of comprehension that it requires demon- 
stration, then your ideal system may be to combine that with either 
sampling or advertising, or both. In any event, once you have got 
the public to understand your article, you need not continue that big 
expense, because advertising can keep it before the public from then 
on. 


CHAPTER LXX 


Other Functions of Advertising Department. 


All adjuncts to advertising, such as sampling and demonstration 
work should be taken care of by the advertising department. Some 
recommend that the advertising department should also be a clearing 
house for complaints. This hardly seems necessary. The advertising 
department should sit in on discussions as to how to handle complaints. 

The advertising department of the Carborundum Company is a 
good example of versatile functions. That industry makes an absolute- 
ly different, special kind of abrasive product, of variety which covers 
the biggest grinding wheel down to the tiniest dental wheel. They 
first made the name of Carborundum known by using national adver- 
tising. Now, they pay most attention to convincing the dealer why 
he should push Carborundum. 


107 


To that end, they use the trade journals extensively. Then, too, 
they have a publication of their own which goes to the dealer and an- 
other which goes to their agents. With this, they hitch up with the 
sales department and get in some effective team work. 

This creation of inspirational plans, to stimulate the salesman, is 
another big job of an all-around advertising department. The sales 
organization of many a big specialty campaign is stimulated and kept 
up to the mark by the ideas that the advertising department puts out. 
Most of the sales contests are originated by the publicity department. 
Thus the advertising manager evolves the plans for the increase of the 
spirit and competitive zeal of the salesmen. 

Why are these sales department matters originated in the adver- 
tising department? Asarule, it is the result of the effort of the adver- 
tising department to stir up the salesmen through an effort to convince 
the salesman that the current advertising is worth talking about. 

To do this consistently the advertising department may get out a 
publication designed to tell the salesman about next fall’s advertising 
plans. Then gradually the advertising department finds that the effi- 
ciency of the advertising can be greatly increased by keeping the sales- 
men keyed up, thus gradually the job of stimulating the salesmen is 
taken over by the advertising manager. 

And, so, it is often true that an advertising manager has far more 
to do with the selling ability of a given sales force than the sales mana- 
ger himself. He gets up all sorts of contests. For instance, this week 
he may put on an imitation World Series. One office will be pitted 
against another. All the salesmen of one branch may be pictured with 
regular baseball uniforms instead of business clothes. The spirit of 
baseball and many of its expressions are carried through this contest. 
Its purpose is to interest the men and get them into competition with 
each other on the basis of sales record which for this stunt might be 
called ‘‘batting records.”’ 

Lectures also often fit into the work of an advertising department. 
For instance, the advertising manager of the Carborundum Company 
spends a good share of his time lecturing before educational institu- 
tions. This is purely advertising. It is demonstration work of high 
class and on a big scale. Included in this phase of promotion work are 
lantern slides, and, in many cases motion pictures. Both these phases, 
in addition to many others, may properly be put in charge of an ad- 
vertising department. 


CHAPTER LXxXI 


How to Decide as to Media. 


After all your detailed analysis of product and prospect, after 
your decision as to what plan of distribution to use, after all your or- 
ganization work in the creation of your sales force, then you may con- 
sider the question: ‘‘What medium is best to carry the advertisement 
of my product to those whom analysis has pointed out as my prospec- 
tive customers? ”’ 


108 


Media are too often selected first, to the result that the primary 
questions are made to depend on that decision. That cart-before-the- 
horse error has caused many false starts in advertising campaigns. 
Because, of course, the analysis of product, prospect and distribution 
plan must decide the question of: ‘‘What media? ”’ 

For instance, it would be impossible to sell a mail-order house’s 
product through street-car cards. Such selling usually requires the 
through-and-through persuasion of the person reading the advertise- 
ment. It requires more than mere suggestion. To get people to 
decide to send money away for something, you have to convince them 
that it is either cheaper or better than they could get elsewhere. 
Therefore, as a rule, mail-order selling requires a long, strong story. 
The street-car card with its limitations would hardly be the place for 
such a message. 

That is simply one of the many little points which suggest how 
the method of distribution may decide what medium should be used in 
advertising. First we must decide the question: ‘‘To whom are we 
going to sell this?’’ Then we get into our general distribution plan. 
Then we come down to details. Here, we are first met with this prob- 
lem of what medium to use. 

Every kind of medium has its advantages. The man with a 
broad, open mind who desires to buy space will probably be persuaded 
towards this kind, then the other kind—until he almost gets to believe 
that every one is best. And the question of copy will help determine 
the final selection, just as the choice of medium will influence the 
question of copy, and, in a way, will decide what kind of copy you 
should use. For instance, if you decide to use street-car cards, you 
have to use a certain kind of copy which is terse, short, and simply 
suggestive, but which, incidentally, can be used in connection with 
colors to the result of excellent display value. 

If, on the other hand, you will use magazines, you will probably 
use a beautiful half tone of a photographic effect. Also, if you care 
to, you can use a long story in your space, because, in the magazine, it 
will be legible. On the other hand, if you choose the newspaper, you 
know that, as a rule you will have to limit yourself to a certain kind of 
a line cut or zinc etching. And, yet, with the newspaper, you know 
that you can take advantage of every element of timeliness. 
You need not make the mistake of a tailoring concern which used 
magazines and which tried to make use of the timely element. Unfor- 
tunately, some national magazines have to close their forms many 
weeks in advance of issue. As a result, these tailoring people came 
out in the fall with a $4,000 ad showing something that did not hap- 
pen. They showed Connie Mack and McGraw dressed in their prod- 
uct and announced them as the principals in the World’s Series, 
whereas during the month previous the Boston Braves had come to 
the front and Stallings had taken the place of McGraw. 

If they had used newspapers, this concern could have changed 
their ad the night before. So, you see, it is rather dangerous to try to 
use timely copy in the magazines, unless their connection is with 
events which are sure to come, such as Christmas. 

So, your method of distribution will not only decide what kind of 
medium to use, but also will decide on the kind of copy. All these 


109 


points, in turn, will previously be decided by a general analysis of prod- 

uct and of prospect. In other words, you must first pick to pieces the 
main elements of appeal that the product itself possesses and the main 
elements of the prospect’s capacities at which those points of appeal 
can best be directed. Then, almost automatically, the question of the 
medium will decide itself. 


CHAPTER LXXII 


Dealer-Co-Operation and Media- Selection. 


As H. Craig Dare has said:—“If you will interview the dealers 
the country over you will find that that general media will create 
big business for them is not beyond challenge. You will hear them 
say: ‘Yes, but what are you going to do for us? In other words, 
they know that that which will sell the goods for them is the local 
newspaper advertising, either over their name or not, as the condi- 
tions may demand. Incidentally, just think what it would mean if 
your salesman could say to the customer: ‘You will need a little 
bigger stock this time. We are going to advertise in your local 
newspapers. We are after the dealer’s co-operation.’ ”’ 

So in this way the question of media will be decided largely by 
your plan of distribution. If you want the dealer’s co-operation, you 
may decide differently in regard to advertising details than if you 
did not care whether the dealers gave you any aid in the promotion 
of your product. 

The big virtue of newspaper advertising is this dealer co-opera- 
tion. And, analysis of distribution problems has shown that the 
dealer, in systems where he is a part of the distributive machinery, 
is all-important. He controls the situation in a majority of cases. 
Fifty-five out of one hundred times he tells the customer what 
particular kind of a certain class of goods that customer wants to 
buy. 

That ratio is based on an investigation by some Chicago pub- 
lishers. They sent circulars to Chicago consumers asking them how 
they were influenced to buy goods. Exactly 55 per cent. of those 
who replied said they depended entirely upon the statements by 
the retail dealer. 

The manufacturer, in order to get his goods into the homes, 
must have the support of the retailer, and that support can’t be 
forced if 55 per cent. of the people are going to depend upon what 
their merchants tell them. If the manufacturer is going to spend 
some money in an effort to create a demand among the consumers, 
let him help the dealer with local advertising. There is more to 
be gained through this co-operation than along any other lines. If 
the dealer refuses to have anything to do with the goods, all the 
advertising the manufacturer can do to reach the consumer won’t 
be anywhere near worth its cost. 

The dealer can negative and sometimes turn into failure a well- 
organized and otherwise successful national campaign. If the man 


110 


in the store does not lend co-operation to sell to the customer who 
comes into the store the articles you have advertised, then the de- 
mand that your advertising has created may be diverted at the last 
moment to something else. 

The positive side of the dealer’s co- operation which newspaper 
advertising makes possible, is that the dealer can feel the direct re- 
sult of the advertising. He feels the direct effect the advertising 
exerts upon the consumer, because the next day after the ad appears 
in the newspaper the women in his neighborhood come in and ask 
for the goods advertised. This advertising also has an effect on the 
dealer himself. He reads the ad and feels the additional enthusiasm 
as to your goods. Through that fact that he thus thinks more of 
your goods, he is instinctively more likely to push them. 

In many cases the national advertiser has the newspaper insert 
the name of the dealer under the ad. This pleases the dealer. It 
announces that the dealer has your goods. Practically, it almost 
makes the dealer seem to boast that he has your goods, for if he 
were not proud of the fact, he would not announce that he carried 
your line. 

That interpretation naturally keeps the dealer keen to push your 
goods. Thus, he involves himself in a co-operation which he other- 
wise might not give. However, there is an objection to putting the 
dealer’s name under the ad. Many dealers refuse to have their 
names appear under the same ad which includes the names of their 
competitors. They want to have their names appear alone. If you 
erant that privilege, then the other dealers whose names were not 
under the ad may become antagonized against your goods, and you 
will have less co-operation than if you ran no advertising at all. 
There is always that dilemma. The salesman in the field must 
decide how the question shall be solved, because he knows the 
local conditions in a given community. Those local conditions will 
determine whether the names of none, or one or more should be 
listed on the newspaper ads as local dealers. 

In any event, the probability is that more dealer co-operation 
can be secured by localized advertising of this kind than by the use 
of general media. 


LXXIII 


Message Helps Decide Medium. 


A practical factor in the question of media is the fact that some 
enjoy such excellent representation. The class of men the maga- 
zines have as their sales forces to carry their story to the advertisers 
is notable. 

Whereas, newspaper solicitors usually go around to the adver- 
tising agencies and talk over details of contract, position and price, 
the magazine representatives actually create business. In the ag- 
gressive effort to show which class of medium is best, the magazines 
certainly lead all others. As a result, it is natural that the maga- 
zines at first blush seem to be the best medium for almost anything. 


Ei 


It is only after the advertiser has gradually found out for himself, 
that he decides to try the newspapers or farm journals or some other 
medium. As a rule, the new advertiser is started by the magazine 
man, who starts him in order to create business for his medium. 
Likewise, a powerful solicitation is exerted in favor of advertising 
novelties. These cover a wide field. They are usually high in 
cost as to number of persons reached, but they are theoretically low 
in cost per number of impressions made on each person. These are 
sometimes good because they can be made individually—made to 
fit the thing advertised. Also they permit of the use of colors. 

But, like street-car. cards and outdoor signs, these novelties 
are limited as to the message that they can carry. They all require 
abbreviation of your sales story. None of them can present your 
proposition the way a salesman could. They all simply suggest. 
Consequently, if they are to be used, they have to be used for an 
article that is known and that is wanted. 

How much result could you get from an advertising novelty 
such as a lead pencil, if your product were a new meter to measure 
the amount of gasoline in an automobile? Such would only suggest, 
even if it did hammer home the trade-mark, who would know what 
it meant? The article would not be known. It would not be 
wanted. Consequently, this suggestive kind of a message which 
your advertising novelty would make possible could not help but 
be inadequate. 7 

On the other hand, when a thing is quite well known and 
sort of half wanted, as in the case of an automatic telephone, then 
suggestive presentation may do. A painted bulletin, in that case, 
may be a good medium on account of its ability to show the article. 


But, as a rule, all such suggestive media are for such things 
as are wanted and which are known. A soda cracker is wanted 
and is known. You need not tell people what soda crackers are and 
why they should want some. Your task would be to divert the 
demand there is for soda crackers over to your particular kind of 
soda crackers. Consequently, the whole burden of your message 
would be the name. 

On that which is known and wanted there is usually a lot of 
competition. There are many manufacturers of every necessity. 
Consequently, these are all about on a par when it comes to the 
value of the articles they put out. They all offer good quality: 
They all sell at about the same price. So, as to such articles, it 
is rather impossible to build up your advertising argument on the 
basis of price, or the quality or, in other words, on the value of 
your product. 

Therefore, you are forced to concentrate on the name itself, 
and when it comes to concentration on a name, the street car card 
and the out door signs, and the novelties lend themselves very 
nicely. 

But suppose you made something that required a good thorough 
presentation—for instance, a cash register. You could never make 
anybody buy a cash register by saying “cash register” to them 
over and over again. You couldn’t make a person buy a cash 
register if you had them go to a moving picture every night to 


112 


see the name on the screen. You would have to convince your 
prospects of the reasons why they should consider the purchase of 
a cash register. 

That sort of argument requires persuasion, and needs to be 
set forth as to reasons. Such advertising is impossible to put on 
the painted bulletin or on the street-car card or on the advertis- 
ing novelty. Either one of them may be used to help out an 
educational campaign which will give that persuasive effect. But 
alone, they could hardly carry the load, simply for the reason that 
people read such media in a casual, on-the-run kind of a way and 
therefore cannot get enough of the message to be convinced. 

So, the character of your message will help determine ques- 
tions of media. If you have a long story to tell, get your audience 
seated. If you just want to shoot out a hint, you might deliver 
it on the run with good success. 


CHAPTER LXXIV 
Resources Help Decide Media. 


A big factor in the choice of media, will be the amount of 
money you can spend on advertising. If you have a small ap- 
propriation, an extensive general campaign will be out of the 
question. You will have to select media which will make it possible 
for you to start a campaign under way without the risk of a large 
amount of money. 

If a campaign limited to a certain community costs you $1,000 
and brings in $100 worth of profit for the unit of your market, 
you will know that that same campaign can probably be duplicated 
in almost every other city in the country. Thus, you can figure 
out how much profit you can expect on each million people. 

Of course, you may not be sure on the basis of one experiment 
alone whether or not the same advertising will succeed to the same 
degree throughout the country. But if you try three or four dif- 
ferent localities with the same advertising, and the same sales 
system, and in each case you get a profit of $100 for each 100,000 
population, then vou will know that you can afford to spend 
$1,000,000 on the United States and be sure of $100,000 in profit— 
that is, as sure as you can be of any business possibility. And the 
best part of this kind of a unit system is that you can work step by 
step. You can take the income from one territory and invest it 
in another. 

The usual new idea, which is most fitted for advertising, starts 
off with very little capital. Quite often the promoter must borrow 
deeply to put on any advertising campaign at all. But even then, 
he cannot get enough to buy very much space in the general pub- 
lications so as to try to cover the country quickly. Such a man 
will find it most feasible and best to see if he cannot arrive at his 
advertising formula-for-success by the use of a few newspapers. 

Perhaps, these experiments will fail at first. He finds he has 
not got that right formula. Either the copy is wrong, or he is using 


113 


too large space or too little space. Or, he has not got the proper 
relationship between the dealer and himself. But by this kind of 
experimentation he can find the cause of his failure. Then, know- 
ing the cause, he can change the method so that his advertising will 
work. Then he has his formula which he can duplicate right 
through the country. 

The growth of newspaper advertising is phenomenal for the 
reason that it does permit of this try-it-out, step-by-step method. 
One of the most notable users of newspaper space today, is such 
because he has proved absolutely that he can get greater results 
with less expenditure by concentrating in about a dozen big city 
papers rather than putting money into magazines. Even among 
cereal advertisers, we find examples of those who believe that the 
newspaper is adequate of itself. ! 

Of course, there are many other big users of newspaper space, 
who also use other kinds of media. They cannot tell which medium 
is best, and as long as they are successful they dont dare drop any 
kind. But with most of these, the margin of profit is so large they 
can afford to duplicate their advertising almost without end. While 
in some other articles with a small margin it might be necessary 
to keep advertising to the barest minimum and to select the one 
best medium rather than to use several whose fields more or less 
overlap each other. 

But, even if you have enough funds so that there is no need for 
a step-by-step development of your advertising, just think how much 
more efficient a unit system of localized advertising would make 
your advertising itself. You could then tell—as does one firm 
which spends $300,000 in the newspapers each year—just how much 
you can afford to spend in each town. How? Why, you will know 
how much business you are getting from that town, and you will 
know how much the advertising costs. 

Compare that business-like system with the difficulty you run 
up against when you use magazines. You do not know whether 
Such-and-Such-a-Weekly is paying, or whether it would be better 
for you to put that amount of money into the So-and-So Monthly, 
and you certainly do not know whether you are spending too much 
for advertising in Oshkosh and not enough in Kalamazoo. 


CHAPTER LXXV. 
Extent of Market Decides Media. 


_ The extent of territory in which the advertiser can sell will help 
decide the question of media. At least, this consideration will ex- 
clude certain kinds, because, if your field of selling is limited, you 
will not want to advertise in media which cover the nation. You 
would have to pay for the entire circulation, whereas only part of it 
could possibly do you any good. 

So important is this point that some big publications—par- 
ticularly in the agricultural field—divide their issues into two 


114 


editions, eastern and western. The editorial contents are the same 
throughout. The division is made so that the advertiser can have his 
ad in whichever half of the nation he can best cover. 

Reasons of prestige and atmosphere, quite often recommend 
general publications. But, even for national propositions, the news- 
paper may work better. For one thing, in the newspaper, your ad 
would not meet the same amount of competition that it would be up 
against in the magazine. That is one big advantage that the news- 
paper offers. 

That is a minor advantage of the newspaper. The great ad- 
vantage of the newspaper is the selection of territory. Many of the 
biggest failures in advertising history have been the failures that 
have been due to the fact that the distribution did not fit in with the 
publicity. One company frankly admits that the reason their $100,- 
000 campaign in the magazines fell flat was that they were buying 
space that reached places where their goods could not possibly 
reach. Half of the circulation for which they paid went into parts 
of the country from which they were absolutely prohibited because 
of the freight rates on their goods. 

In many cases the so-called national advertiser, whether he be 
jobber or manufacturer, is limited as to his territory. Suppose he 
has no branch in Canada. Then the thousands of copies of the 
magazines which go into Canada, are paid for by him. But they 
bring him nothing. 

Likewise the market is apt to be limited, even within a given 
territory. An eastern furniture concern would have to pay for 
magazine circulation in Grand Rapids. A stove company would 
have to pay for space in magazines that reach warm climates where 
the stove is not necessary. That is but one example of a big class 
of advertisers who cannot reach into all parts of the country either 
through some handicap of freight rate or through some fact of lack 
of demand due to demands of climate, or local competition, or some 
reason of that kind. 

No jobber could successfully advertise in his own territory 
alone if he had to rely on the national magazine. Take for instance 
a coffee roaster whose territory is limited. There is no magazine 
that has a circulation to fit into that particular block of territory. 
If such a jobber bought general publication space, probably half of 
the money would be wasted. The newspaper is the only possible 
publication for reaching the consumer in that kind of marketing, in 
which the field is only a fraction of the nation. 


CHAP TERR Pee VI 


The Magazine as a Medium. 


When considering what medium to use, you are apt to think 
of publications which are issued periodically, whether daily like the 
newspapers, or weekly, or monthly like the general magazines and 
the trade journals. 


115 


The magazines originally supported themselves on the sub- 
scriptions that they got. Advertising was purely incidental. Today, 
the magazine that tries to live on its subscription is apt to die. Al- 
most always it costs more to get a subscription than the subscription 
brings in. Therefore, the advertising that the magazine carries to- 
day is the backbone of the profit of the publication. That is why 
the magazines have such powerful organizations to sell their space. 
These men who represent magazines are equipped to tell almost 
any advertising manager something about his business. 


Although, in most cases, each magazine has its own selling 
force, that is seldom so in the newspaper field. As many as 20 
different newspapers may all be represented by one organization. It 
is difficult for one corps of men to sell the advertising space for 20 
or so newspapers. They cannot work as effectively for any one 
newspaper, as can the salesman for a magazine who can give all the 
arguments in favor of his magazine as well as in favor of magazine 
advertising in general. 

The magazine is sold on the basis of the page as a unit, but, 
usually, you can buy as small as seven lines or half an inch of one 
column. The cost is figured on the circulation. This figures out 
about three times as much as the same circulation per line in news- 
papers. If the newspaper were figured on the basis of page and the 
magazine were figured on the basis of page, then perhaps the cost 
would be about the same cost per page per thousand of circulation 
in either medium. But, take a magazine of 100,000 circulation, with 
a cost per page of about $300. A newspaper page with 100,000 cir- 
culation might cost nearly that amount per page. But of course the 
newspaper page is several times as big as the magazine page. So 
when you figure on a per inch basis, the comparative cost is about 
one-third as great in the usual newspaper per thousand of circula- 
tion, as in the magazine. 


One big claim in favor of the magazine is that the people 
when reading a magazine are at leisure. ‘They are at ease. They 
have nothing to pull their attention away from your ad. Therefore, 
they can concentrate on the magazine, whether it be the reading mat-_ 
ter or the advertisements. 

That is true as far as the outside competition against your ad 
in the magazine is concerned. But, the inside competition against 
your ad is keen, for it comprises all the other attractions in the maga- 
zine. ‘Thus your ad,.there, must face just as much competition as 
~1f it were in a newspaper or any other medium. For, a person is 
apt to be more Puce in a magazine article or story than in any- 
thing they read in the newspaper. Consequently, you have a bigger 
job to pull the eye toward your ad away from some magazine feature 
that attracts. 

If your ads in the magazine are scattered among the reading 
pages, they suffer the competition of adjacent reading matter. Yet, 
if they are all gathered in a bunch at the back of the magazine, 
they compete against each other, but not to the degree that street- 
car cards do, or outdoor signs, because magazine ads need not de- 
pend entirely on display. Some of them have the appeal of art. 
Others have the appeal of a jingle. Others rely on a cartoon. Still 


116 


others whisper enticingly in terms of daintiness. Few force atten- 
tion through sheer display. | 

The ads on the printed page can be more versatile than the 
limits of a street-car card or a sign can permit. Consequently, the 
magazine ad has not so flat a competition. In other words, the eye 
could go all the way through a hundred magazine ads and not get 
tired because there would be that continuous variety. But, the eye 
on going over street-car cards would be met with a sameness ot 
display, for, either it would be one of color, or just plain eye-appeal 
through contrast or some other physical method. 

The tendency today is away from the magazines and towards 
the newspapers. This is proved by the great loss in national maga- 
zine advertising, and the proportionate gain in newspaper adver- 
tising. 

This is largely because the virtues which the magazine 
possesses (with the exception of the magazine’s superiority in the 
printing art) are also virtues of the newspapers. This trend toward 
newspaper advertising is also due to the fact that newspapers are 
free from the negative faults which mar the magazine as a medium. 


CHAPTER LX XVIT 


Class and Trade Publications. 


The magazine is getting more and more like the newspaper. A 
magazine’s circulation is no longer one of a distinctive class—it is 
no longer of a clientele of those of certain tastes. The modern big 
magazine is read by Tom, Dick and Harry, Mary, Jane and Maud. 
In fact, unless it be a class periodical, a magazine’s circulation is 
the general public, which is also the clientele of the newspaper. 

Although, in many phases, the magazine and the newspapers 
are quite alike, they differ in the opportunity they respectively afford 
for the use of the element of timeliness. This can be used only 
slightly in the magazine—not to any fine degree. There is no chance 
to take advantage of the weather, for instance. But, if you advertise 
in the newspapers, and it rains this morning, you may be able to 
get in a rain coat advertisement this afternoon. 

You cannot take advantage of any such detail of timeliness in 
the magazines, because most of them close their forms at 
least a month before their date of publication. Therefore, the only 
timeliness that can be approached is the matter of seasons and events 
of the calendar. If you do that, you are apt to get into a deadly 
competition, because if there are 100 ads in the magazine advertising, 
even though they concern different things, if they all use in their 
messages the same angle of timeliness, they are all apt to be less ef- 
fective through the fact that they thus compete as to their line of 
display or appeal. 

A big trouble with the magazine is that it does not permit you 
to cut the cloth to fit your suit.. You have to take a whole lot of 
waste circulation, if your distribution is not perfect. Thus you 


8 eg, 


must pay to send your message to places where you cannot sell your 
goods, if you use the magazine. 

This fault is absent from the class publications, which are gen- 
erally of virtually wasteless circulation. These include agricultural, 
motorboat, automobile, gardening and fashion publications, as well 
as many others whose circulations depend upon certain character- 
istics of their readers. Magazines of general circulation depend on 
tastes which all have, such as the desire for good clothes, and food 
and so on. But class publications presuppose distinctive capacities 
or pursuits such as those which make some people farmers, and 
others motorboat enthusiasts. 

Class publication space costs a little bit higher per inch per 
capita than space in general circulation. The average class maga- 
zine, for instance, costs only about $50 to $75 per page as against 
$500 or $600 per page in a standard magazine. But, when it comes 
down to the question of actual cost per person, the former is much 
more expensive than the periodicals of general circulation. As a 
result of this high cost of the class journal, due to its particular ef- 
fectiveness in connection with its class of circulation, such a publi- 
cation, is, as a rule, used for products that particularly appeal to that 
class. 

The biggest group in this field of class publications is the agri- 
cultural journal. This is because farmers have certain problems, 
tastes and interests that can be best appealed to through a particular 
kind of a magazine. 

These tastes and problems sometimes vary according to the lo- 
cation of the farmer. The man in the South may have a cotton 
problem. The man in the North may have a grain problem. Other 
men in the North may have a fruit growing problem. These differ- 
ent problems and different sets of interests have given rise to indi- 
vidual publications catering individually to those different interests 
of a class within a class. Thus we have poultry journals, and fruit 
papers, and bee papers, which go to different kinds of farmers—all 
of whom may also be interested in the same general agricultural 
problems. 

These specialized papers may be called trade journals, if they 
pertain to the furniture industry, for instance. If their trend is to- 
ward a more scientific policy, and they deal with a subject of an 
engineering nature, they are called technical publications. But all of 
these have the same big trait of the class publication—that their cir- 
culations comprise a clientele of tastes peculiar to their kind. 


CHAPTER LXXVIII 


The Street-Car Card as a Medium. 


Another general medium which can be localized is the street- 
car card. Its circulation, per dollar expended, is bigger than you 
can get in almost any other medium. Another claim is that the way 
advertising is read in street cars, makes the car card’s competition 


118 


less. When a person is riding he is supposed to have nothing else 
to do but look at the signs. Natural concentration of attention is 
supposed to result. 

The fact that colors can be used is a strong argument in favor of 
street-car cards. Thus, an intensity of display is possible, which 
you cannot get in most publications. This point is important in 
connection with the advertisement of packaged goods. ‘There the 
aim is mainly to familiarize the public with the article and the 
trade-mark. Here, colors make possible the reproduction of the 
package in a life size, and thus impress the thing on the person’s 
mind far more intensely than any number of words could. : 


The timeliness of the street-car card impression is another ar- 
gument. They say that, as a rule, the shopper sees the street-car 
card while on the way to buy. Consequently, the street-car ad may 
have the last word in the persuasion of that shopper as to what 
particular brand to buy. Of course, this same argument holds just 
as well to the cards and signs that a manufacturer has in the 
dealer’s store. These are probably even more effective in this phase, 
because they are even nearer the exact minute of purchase. 


The argument of economy in reaching a particular territory, is 
another argument for street car advertising. In some cities you 
might well localize if you were to advertise certain things of class 
appeal, which could be sold only to those with money. Such, you 
would have to advertise in a certain one of the newspapers, or if 
you were to use the street-car cards, you might choose certain street 
car lines which reached the sections of the city which comprised the 
part of the population you wanted. 


Likewise —if yours were an article which appealed to the 
poorer classes, you could concentrate where they lived. If you 
wanted to use the newspapers instead of the street-car cards, in the 
big cities you could get certain newspapers which had an even more 
specific appeal than the street-car cards when localized in a certain 
section. For instance, foreign newspapers might suit your needs. 
Perhaps, the German newspapers, or, in some cities, the Polish 
newspapers might command the kind of population you sought. 
Some such papers are of such importance as an advertising medium 
in a national way, that they have their own sales forces which con- 
sist of representatives who go through the country to persuade pos- 
sible users of space to place their advertising in their non-English 
media. 


However, foreign populations are often located in communities 
into which certain street car lines go. The question is—which is 
cheaper circulation, the localized street-car publicity, or the local- 
ized newspaper advertising? To judge the cost of street-car card 
advertising, they use as a circulation the number of nickels and 
transfers taken in each day; that is, the number of passengers. The 
trouble with that is that passengers are not necessarily readers. 

Furthermore, an individual street-car card has tremendous 
competition. Its whole environment is advertising—all along, both 
sides of the car. Therefore, it is up against an attitude of: “You 
have got to make me look at you.” The car-cards get no voluntary 
interest, such as you would give the newspaper or the magazine for 


119 


which you paid. Only involuntary interest does the street-car card 
enjoy. 

ee their competition with each other, street-car cards use all 
sorts of colors to win the attention of the casual eye. This tends to 
create a fusion. The result is a tendency to flood the specific mes- 
sage of a certain card with sort of a conglomeration of all the cards. 
Men have experimented with street-car cards to prove that this 
fusion does blur the reader’s consciousness. 

Their findings are that this fusion is greater in street-car cards 
than in almost any other medium. For instance, in one city the 
ice cream makers had done considerable advertising in the street 
cars. These men glanced over these ads advertising three different 
ice creams. Nine out of ten could not recall which ad belonged to 
which ice cream company. Was this because of the kind of copy? 
No. That was extremely individual. Each had certain lines of 
style and atmosphere. The trouble was that in running over those 
street-car cards, the vision was pulled this way and that—so much 
that the comprehension blurred. For, altho the eye may grasp, the 
mind may lose the concept on the wings of fusion. 

And yet, facts have proved that the street-car cards can win. 
They have to their credit the construction of many trade-marks— 
mere names, which street-car advertising has turned into gold 
mines worth millions. For that which needs but the emphasis of 
name and popularization of package, they compare with newspapers 
as a medium. But when the advertising message must carry argu- 
mentative persuasion, the street-car card cannot hope to have the 
effectiveness of publications which are voluntarily read. 

Likewise, in connection with retail advertising, the newspaper 
seems better for action-advertising. Of the many tests that have 
been made, there is the example of a hardware store which adver- 
tised an 85c alarm clock in the cars for 30 days and sold 75 of them. 
The same copy in one newspaper sold 200 in one day. 


CHAPTER “LX ix 


Outdoor Advertising and Signs. 


In many ways, outdoor advertising is the most attractive 
medium. It attracts the reader. It also attracts the advertiser. 
When a man comes into your office and says: “Here’s a sign ten 
times as long as your office and just as high. So many thousand 
people will see it every day. The cost, you see, is ridiculously small 
per capita. Here is the cheapest of all media when you figure the 
number of people that are theoretically reached,” an outdoor advo- 
cate like that is hard to resist. 

Outdoor media are divided into three general classes: Posters, 
painted bulletins, and electric signs. The posters are now pretty 
well controlled by an association which is similar to the company 
syndicate which controls most of the street-car cards. But, the Post- 
er Advertising Association covers many independent bill posters 


120 


throughout the country. These companies take care of fairly large 
local territories. They own the sign boards on which they put up 
the advertising. They sell their space individually or through the 
eight selling organizations called “official solicitors” of the associa- 
tion. 

The poster is most used in connection with theatrical adver- 
tising. It lends itself to quick change of ad. Likewise, it lends it- 
self to life-size portrayal of characters in all the natural colors. 
That is why the poster has proven to be about the most effective 
kind of advertising that theaters have used. 

Painted bulletins are the ads that are painted directly on the 
sign boards. They are, therefore, not so suited to change, as are 
the paper posters which are pasted on. Except for that, the painted 
bulletin and the poster are about the same. 

The electric sign is usually localized. Some manufacturers, 
however, seek to cover the country and offer to furnish such signs 
for national advertisers in a country-wide way. Some say that the 
electric sign is on the, wane—that it has reached the height of its 
prevalency. 

Electric signs depend on the eye. They are the more effective, 
the fewer there are. When many signs fight for attention, their ef- 
fectiveness decreases to a great degree. For instance, suppose the 
whole side of a big building were covered with electric signs. No 
matter how wonderful in color or size your sign might be, if only 
one of several hundred signs, yours would be worth very little, sim- 
ply because those scores of signs would so hammer at the eye of 
the passer-by that he would not get any particular kind of an im- 
pression. But, if yours were left lighted and the others were put 
out, yours would be worth many hundred times more in its ability 
to flash its message to those who saw it. 

The main thing that differentiates the electric sign from every 
other sign, with the exception of the mechanical window display, is 
the feature of action. Action has a greater eye-attraction than color 
For the utilization of that fact, there is nothing like the electric 
sign—that is if there are not a lot of other electric signs yelling out 
at the same time. Electric signs make possible the use of both 
color and action. 

The electric sign, as a rule, is located so that it reaches peo- 
ple who are where they can buy the thing advertised. This fact 
makes for that same element of timeliness of appeal. Also, with 
signs, you can select your territory. For instance, if some flour 
manufacturers were selling rye flour to be used by the housewife 
for making her own bread, they would probably decide that the 
best market for that kind of flour would be in a certain kind of 
district. With a sign of this kind they could reach right into that 
section and concentrate every cent of their appropriation on that 
immediate market. 

_ _Like the street-car cards, the sign must depend entirely on 
display for its power. Inasmuch as display decreases proportion- 
ately with the amount of competitive displays of the same kind that 
surround a given sign, therefore the electric sign is apt to lose its 
efficiency the more popular it becomes as an advertising medium. 
That is the main trouble with the electric sign of today. The elec- 


121 


tric sign as a means to advertise a store or to announce the name 
of a place or the particular kind of merchandise handled at a cer- 
tain shop is most logical and well worth while. But in that case, 
it does not suffer from that harmful competition of adjacent signs. 

Like the street-car card, the sign must also depend upon sug- 
gestion for its message. It cannot persuade—it cannot convince 
your intellect. It simply reaches your involuntary instinct and tries 
to get you to buy largely through suggestion. 


CHAPTER -LXXX 


The Advertising Novelty as a Medium. 


Another medium which depends on a suggestion is the ad- 
vertising novelty. This is supposed to be low in cost on account 
of the number of days that it continues to reach the recipient. 
Novelty advertising is one of the original kinds. Many people used 
to spend more money on it than on almost any other phase. At 
first, novelty business developed of itself. But, recently, these 
manufacturers have tried to build up an organized promotion in 
favor. of their particular phase of advertising. 

The advertising novelty is usually high in cost per person, 
but low in cost per person per day. The pencil that you get with 
the name of a store on it costs more than it would to have that mes- 
sage sent to you through almost any other medium. One could tell 
the name of the store and something good about the business for 
far less than the cost of that pencil. The only reason in favor of 
the pencil is the theory that you will use it for, say, 20 days, and 
every time you use it, you will think of the store it advertises. If 
that were so, then the pencil or any other novelty, would be a 
tremendously good medium. But unfortunately it does not work 
out entirely in that way. 

Because something is in front of you does not prove that you 
will observe it. Herbert N. Casson has said: “That which you 
see all the time, you never see at all.’ Haven’t you suddenly 
noticed in your home something which had been there all the time, 
but which you had never sensed before? How many buttons are 
there on your coat sleeve? If you are like most people, you will 
have to count them, even if you have worn the coat for months. 

Many a time, men have sat at their desks day in and day out, 
continually looking at a certain calendar in front of them. Yet, when 
asked: “What concern does that calendar advertise?” they do not 
know. The first impression when they first saw it was about the 
only one their minds received. After that, even though they looked 
a it every day, they saw only what they sought to see—that is, the 

ate. 

Almanacs and novelties of all kinds have been put around from 
house to house in an effort to advertise to the housewife. Like 
other media of this kind, these usually give but one message which a 


122 


newspaper ad could give at much less cost per person reached. | The 
reason an advertiser is willing to pay more for the novelty is be- 
cause of the false theory that a novelty keeps giving forth its mes- 
sage continually and repetitively. 

The fresh appeal of the newspaper is worth more than any 
monotonous permanence. A big cereal manufacturer expresses this 
point as follows: “The one big advantage possessed by a news- 
paper—which I shall call ‘varied continuity"—is the thing that ap- 
peals to me, more than anything else. To illustrate: A salesman 
would get the best results by varying his appeal—sometimes by a 
visit when his business was not mentioned; another time when 
price would be discussed in detail—and the order secured. 

“The schedule—made up to include ‘all type’ copy, text with 
illustration and sometimes only a picture—gets attention all along 
the line—and—if persistently kept up—will be sure to have its 
effect. 

“This is an age of living and learning. It is not enough to 
tell the American housewife that you have something to sell to her; 
you must tell her what it is, how it is made, how packed and what 
advantages it possesses for her over products supposed to be similar. 

“As far as we are concerned, I am sure we can obtain better 
results and a larger share of permanent, satisfied customers—by 
telling our story in a series of newspaper advertisements. Of course, 
we do not reach every one; there is a waste in some of the circula- 
tion we buy, our claims are doubted by a certain percentage of 
newspaper readers, and some people do not see our advertisements 
at all. The law of averages, however, is a safe one to follow.” 


CHAPTER LXXXI 
How Well Do Newspapers Cover the Country? 


In the United States, there are over 10,000 towns which boast 
of one or more newspapers. Therefore, these cover the country bet- 
ter than any other possible medium. 

Foremost are the daily newspapers. Of these there are 5,000 
or so. Then there are about 15,000 weeklies of two distinct kinds. 
First, there is what is known as the “home print” paper. That means 
that everything in the paper is set up, composed and printed right 
in the print shop of that publisher in that town. Consequently, 
everything in the paper is apt to have a local flavor and through that 
fact is apt to be more interesting than something less pertinent to . 
that particular community. 

The other class is the semi-home print paper. This comes to 
the local publisher with one-half already printed. The rest is com- 
posed in the publisher’s own plant. Some of these country news- 
papers are known as “patent inside.’”’ That means that the local pub- 
lisher each week gets, say, 500 sheets of paper that are blank on the 
outside. Inside there are stories of the war, on how to take care of 
cattle, and on other topics which are not local to the publisher’s 
community—but which are purely of general interest. 


123 


By using this “patent inside,” the publisher can produce his 
paper at quite a little saving as against what it would cost if he were 
to set up his own type for those two inside pages, and print local 
matter. The syndicate which sends those papers to him each week 
prints many thousands of these papers, with those two inside pages 
all the same. And 5,000 publishers get their half-printed paper in 
the same way and print the local news on the two outside pages. | 

In a national campaign it is easy enough to use the big city 
newspapers, because all you need do is send them ‘ ‘copy.” You do 
not have to send them electrotypes of the ad already set up. They 
will be sure to follow your style anyway. Wuth even a small-town 
daily paper, you can easily follow the same system. But with the 
village paper, you can hardly ask the publisher to set up your ad in 
any special way. His type supply is very small. He might not 
have the face of type you want. So, in these cases, it is best to send 
the electros all ready to print. 

But if you were to try to cover the country, you see what a tre- 
mendous detail there would be in sending out your ads to these 
thousands of papers. You would have to pay your bill to each of 
them every month and that would mean that you would have over 
100 bills a day to pay. You would have to send electros to each one. 

Accordingly, with these 5,000 ready-print papers, you could 
have the syndicate press send out your ad included on the pages 
which they print up in advance. Of course, any advertiser would 
prefer, as a rule, to have his ad where the live local matter was—on 
the home print pages. But, the syndicate + able to get the cost of 
production of the ready prints so low that the cost for space on their 
pages is far below what it would cost in the local pages. 

The usual cost of newspaper space is less than one-fourth of a 
cent per line per thousand of circulation. The cost becomes about 
one-half cent per line per thousand for the big newspapers where the 
circulation runs up to 100,000. But, with the smaller newspaper, it 
would be impossible for them to sell their space at so low a rate. The 
usual paper of 1,000 circulation has to sell its space for about a cent 
a line per thousand instead of one-seventh cent per line per thousand 
as in the big papers. And yet, so economical are ready prints, that 
in hundreds of cases, the ready-print price for a given thousand will 
be three cents an inch as against a price of ten cents an inch on the 
local page. 


EAP TOR OO Le 


Why Newspapers Cost Least. 


The newspaper is the main medium in local advertising, al- 
though as a national medium, its general use is fairly new. 

As a local medium, there is no other kind that compares. It 
reaches just the people whom the local advertiser can reach and 
wants to reach. 


124 


The question of cost is not so important to the local advertiser, 
because, as a rule, he would find it necessary and profitable to use 
the local newspaper, even though it were considerably higher in 
price. So natural is it for the newspaper to count on the local or 
home advertising as its main advertising, that at first when the pub- 
lisher began to accept contracts for space from outsiders he called it 
“foreign” advertising, meaning advertising which is non-local. 


The rate at first was high and decidedly in favor of the home 
dealer. Today, some rates are the same for both the local and the 
foreign advertiser, whereas in other cases they are lower for the 
local advertiser than for the foreign advertiser, and in others they 
are lower for the foreign than for the local. There is no reason for 
this difference in rates, except the reason that the publisher can get 
that rate in one case and not in the other. 


As a national medium, the newspaper is strictly a medium ot 
action-advertising. If you wish to secure just plain publicity, just 
a familiarization of your name or the popularization of the product, 
then the street-car card or the bill board or some other “read-as-you- 
run” method might do the work as well. But if you want your ad- 
vertising to bring immediate results—to cause the person to decide 
to go and get the thing—then the newspaper is quite without peer, 
especially if yours is an article which is sold through that method 
of distribution which is based on local dealers. 


The cost of newspaper advertising is considerably less than 
magazine advertising. It has been figured out that, for $1500 in 50 
leading newspapers you could secure 100 lines of space reaching 
eleven million people. That same advertisement in 10 leading mag- 
azines would cost $1440, and would reach only two and a half million 
people. So you see, comparatively, the newspaper advertising is 
four times as cheap as that of the standard magazine. 

Most advertising space is figured on a “line” basis. That re- 
fers to an agate line, 14 of which comprise an inch of space. Suppose 
that one line in a newspaper costs about a third of a cent per thou- 
sand circulation. In other words, the advertising in a paper which 
reaches 100,000 people would cost about one hundred.times a third 
of a cent per line (or per 1-14 of an inch of a column). 


The price varies greatly from one paper to another, depending 
upon class of circulation. The cost of some dailies is as high as 10c 
per line for 10,000 circulation or 1c per line per thousand. ‘That is 
higher than is usual in a large city paper. A great big newspaper 
might cost 85c a line or nearly $12 an inch, and yet it would prob- 
ably be far cheaper than the smaller one when figured on the basis 
of cost per thousand. 

Newspaper rates vary with the amount of space used. A max- 
imum rate is charged when mimimum space is used—and vice versa. 
Some papers reduce their charges according to the frequency of in- 
sertion. In these cases, one inch every day during the year will earn 
a far lower rate than 355 inches all at one time. Such a system of 
rates is called a “fixed-space’”’ basis. The “open-space” plan does 
not take into consideration the frequency of insertion so much as it 
does the total amount of space used during a certain period. 


125 


Other considerations also decide the cost of newspaper space. 
If you do not furnish your advertisement in plate form, the news- 
paper will have to compose the ad. Cosequently, you might have to 
pay a composition charge to cover the cost of the labor involved. 

The usual rate is based on “run-of-paper” position, which means 
that the publisher can place your ad anywhere in his paper, as he 
may see fit. Many advertisers believe the effectiveness of their ad 
will be increased if they have reading matter instead of other ads 
alongside of them. Therefore, they want “preferred” position, which 
is called “island” position, if it is entirely surrounded by reading 
matter. If the ad has reading matter on two sides, it is said to be 
in “full” position. Any of these preferred positions comprise extra 
service and should warrant extra charge. 


CHAPTER LXXXIII 


Newspaper Timeliness and Check-up- Ability. 


Another phase to the question of position of an ad in a news- 
paper has to do with the character of the ordinary matter alongside 
which it is to be placed. A millinery announcement, for instance, 
would be most effective if on a society page. A haberdashery sale 
could best be advertised on the sporting page. 

This kind of position also has to do with the question of time- 
liness. In the newspaper, it is possible not only to place your ad 
where the character of contiguous matter will help aid your message, 
but also you can make what you have to say correspond, to a day, 
with things that are happening. 

In the newspaper, the advertising writer can fit his ad to the 
occasion. He can clothe the ad that appears the day before the 
Fourth of July in Independence Day clothes and by the fact that it 
has the atmosphere of the Fourth of July, it is liked better and is 
more effective. 

Another big advantage of the newspaper as a national medium 
is the fact that you can tell what the results are. The same virtue of © 
the localization of your advertisement also makes it possible to find 
out whether or not what you are spending in‘a certain town is justi- 
fied. Suppose you were using a thousand inches a year in a certain 
paper as your advertising appropriation for that city. That would 
mean that you would be spending $2,000 there. You could tell from 
your books how much business you were getting out of that city. If 
it were not enough to justify the $2,000 expenditure, you would know 
that your advertising there was not (at the time being) successful. 
This might be on account of your choice of medium. It might be on 
account of your use of copy. It might be because you had the wrong 
local representation. Perhaps your advertising had not run long 
enough. It might be due to any one of a number of reasons. 

If you were using general publications, and the proportion of 
your advertising expense for that city was $2,000, then you could not 


126 


tell whether or not that certain part of your advertising was profit- 
able. Sometimes, the same advertising in one locality will yield 
good profit and in another locality will incur a loss. And so, the 
ability to check up each city in this way is about the biggest feature 
that the unit plan of advertising offers the men who seek a national 
market. 


CHAPTER DXA TV 


Arguments vs. Newspapers as Media. 


A newspaper as a national medium has disadvantages, too. In 
the first place, there is the clerical work involved in the use of news- 
papers. If you were using 4,000 newspapers, reaching, say, twelve 
million circulation, you would need about twenty people continually 
at it to take care of the details entailed. If you were to reach those 
same twelve million people with fifty magazines, one man could 
handle the work. 

That big difficulty in connection with newspaper advertising, 
makes some advertising agencies prefer magazine accounts rather 
than newspaper accounts. And when the advertiser takes care of his 
newspaper advertising from his own office, this difficulty seems even 
greater. 

There are also certain mechanical limitations of the newspaper. 
It has got to be on cheap print paper which cannot reproduce a very 
good half-tone. The illustration in the newspaper must either be a 
line cut made of zinc or wood, or else it must be a very coarse-screen 
half-tone, which cannot possibly show up like a photograph, like a 
fine-screen half-tone would if printed on smoother paper. 

Another limitation that is alleged against the newspaper is that 
it is short-lived. The newspaper is read today and thrown away to- 
morrow. The magazine is kept. However, if the impression that 
advertising gives is strongly, if not entirely comprised in its first 
impression, then the advertisement which is seen many times has no 
more power to persuade than that which is seen once or twice. That 
which we see again and again, we just see. We do not observe it 
the subsequent times. Therefore, its stimulus on our minds is not 
much more than when first seen. Perhaps, then, the fact of short- 
life of a newspaper ad is not so great an objection after all. 

Another point is that of atmosphere. The magazine is not only 
high-grade artistically, but it also is supposed to be of loftier subject 
matter. As to the kind of advertising carried, magazines quite often 
refuse to accept medical advertising, even when it is of approved 
merit. Newspapers, with the exception of a few, accept certain med- 
ical advertisements. Perhaps this is because the meritorious medical 
advertisers have found newspapers most resultful. 

Almost all publications accept cigarette advertising. Some re- 
fuse whiskey advertising. This point is often emphasized, for the rea- 
son that an ad is supposed to be known by the company it keeps. If 
an ad for an automobile is surrounded by an ad for beer, the theory 


127 


is that the motor ad is decreased as to its effectiveness as against 
the power it would have if it were surrounded with music adver- 
tisements. - 

There is certainly something to that, but when your ads have 
position and are alongside of news matter which is worthy, interest- 
ing and important enough to warrant publication, then your ad is in 
pretty good company. Just because some newspapers accept adver- 
tising, alongside which you would not want your ad, is no reason 
why you should not use newspapers, because if you wish, you can 
have your advertisement isolated. 

Another point in the controversy as to whether newspapers 
or magazines are better media, has to do with the contents other 
than the advertising. The newspaper is composed of much that is 
only partially read. It is skimmed over. It is bought out of habit 
and simply in hope or in fear that there may be something there 
worth reading. The magazine is supposed to be bought, selected 
and paid for because, it is nearly a hundred per cent of the matter 
that you want to read. 


CHAPTER XXX V. 


Why the Newspaper is Most Businesslike. 


The main objection to advertising in the newspapers seems to 
be the question of illustration. You say you cannot get up as dainty 
an appeal as in the case of general magazines, where the smooth 
paper and the ability to use fine-screened cuts make possible all 
kinds of art. However, Coca-Cola, Wrigley, the Standard Oil Com- 
pany and others have proven that for all commercial purposes they 
can get as much art as necessary in the newspaper copy. 

The agency’s big objection to using the newspapers in a Na- 
tional advertising campaign is the matter of the extra cost involved 
in the clerical work. That is why an advertising agency would pre- 
fer to have magazines specified, because the commissions then are 
on a few insertions which cost a large sum each, and which involve 
but little clerical work to handle. 

However, let us look at the advantages. For instance, suppose 
right at this moment you were using the newspapers. The day be- 
fore the Fourth every newspaper, where you have distribution, ran 
an ad announcing your goods in an “Independence Day” atmosphere. 
Don’t you think that such a broadside would sell more goods than 
a full page in a general magazine, for instance? Remember, it could 
have the element of timeliness to a superlative degree, and timeliness 
is the element which gives news (whether it be in the form of ad- 
vertising or newspaper articles) the power to gain interest. 

As Frank A, Munsey has said, “The magazine is a luxury and 
the newspaper a necessity.”’ Magazines are read with an involun- 
tary interest. The attitude of the reader is “You have got to show 
me.’ ‘The newspaper is read with a voluntary interest, and the at- 
titude of the reader is, ‘What can I find here that is worth while?” 


128 


But most specifically, if you were in the newspapers, you would 
enjoy another big advantage, and that is you would get your adver- 
tising away from competition. In the general magazines, you are 
shouting your song in favor of your goods, while Tom, Dick and 
Harry are yelling theirs. The result is that the reader has an in- 
definite idea that he should use your kind of goods, but whether it 
be your brand or his, or the other fellow’s, is not decided. None of 
these competitors, however, are in the newspapers. You could reap 
the benefit of “blazing the trail” if you should shift. 

We cite you many examples of those who have shifted from 
magazines to newspapers, and who have made, good thereby. For 
instance, Certain-teed Roofing, Florida Citrus Exchange, Alpha Ce- 
ment Co., and the H-O Co. There are some, of course, like Coca- 
Cola, which can afford to use both, but there is only one Coca-Cola, 
whereas there are several people making your kind of goods. Con- 
sequently, perhaps, it is necessary to have less duplication in your 
advertising. By the same token, Coca-Cola can be sold quite re- 
gardless of the dealer’s help, whereas with you, you have to have the 
dealer on your side, because substitution is so easy. 

How can you get the dealer to favor your brand above the 
other fellow’s? 

If you will interview the dealers the country over, you will find 
that this idea that general magazines will create big business ‘for 
them is not beyond challenge. You will hear them say: “Yes, but 
what are you going to do for us?” In other words, they know that 
that which will sell the goods for them is the local newspaper adver- 
tising, either over their name or not, as the conditions may demand. 
Incidentally, just think what it would mean if your salesman could 
say to the customer: “You will need a little bigger stock this time. 
We are going to advertise in your local newspapers. We are after 
the dealer’s co-operation.” 

Also, just think how much more efficient this would make your 
advertising itself. You could then tell—as one advertiser does, who 
spends $300,000 in the newspapers each year—just how much you 
can afford to spend in each town. How? Why, you will know how 
much business you are getting from that town, and you will know 
how much the advertising costs. Compare that business-like sys- 
tem with the difficulty you run up against when you use magazines. 
You do not know whether Such-and-Such-a-Weekly is paying, or 
whether it would be better for you to put that amount of money into 
the So-and-So Monthly. 


GEA POPE Rao OVE 


Newspaper’s Lack of ‘“‘Atmosphere’’ Immaterial. 


“Atmosphere” is one of the barnacles that have slowed up the 
good ship Advertising. True, there are many factors which have 
caused the readers to give ads less attention than ad writers think 
their copy justifies. But, if there is any dominating, discouraging 


129 


element that has turned many a man who should be an advertiser 
into a chronic and hopeless non-advertiser—the injurious element 
has been this howl of “atmosphere.” By this howl, many a man has 
been hypnotized into spending his money foolishly, and having 
burned his fingers has put down advertising as “Not for him!” 

Some men talk too much of “atmosphere.” They are apt to 
recommend a certain publication on account of its atmospheric 
“eclat,” or something else that defies business-like analysis. And, if 
an advertising plan fails to bring home results, they are apt to say: 
“Well, we had to establish an ‘atmosphere’ for the thing, first. Now 
we will sell the goods.” 

Any plea made for newspapers must be on the ground of direct 
results rather than atmospheric effect. But the “atmosphere” which 
most folk specifically arraign has to do with the company that an 
ad has to keep. They say that they do not think the newspaper 
reader will believe what you have to say as long as there are so 
many “evil” ads in the next column. 

That objection is important, and partially true. But why sin- 
gle out the newspaper? Many magazines refuse liquor advertising. 
Some of the best of them have it on their cover pages, and even at 
that, some say that beer is not as bad for a human being as cigar- 
ettes, and magazines that dont accept cigarette advertising are as 
scarce as hen’s teeth. 

But that is nothing against the magazine, nor is it anything 
against the newspapers. As long as those things are licensed by the 
government it seems within the realm of honesty for a newspaper 
publisher or magazine publisher to accept that kind of copy as long 
as it does not deceive. 

It is the same way with medicines. Very few of them would 
ever be able to use the magazines because such advertisers have to 
depend largely on newspapers in order to get and keep their distri- 
bution. Moreover, many a big success in the drug field could never 
have been started if it had been necessary to sink as much money 
initially as a magazine campaign would have required at the start- 
off. They had to go at it gradually, cautiously, using last week’s 
receipts to meet next week’s advertising bills. Therefore, they used 
the newspapers because direct results were absolutely necessary. 

Yes, there are many so-called proprietary medicines that you 
might “keep company with” without losing your social caste. Take 
Castoria, for instance. Every parent knows that that has deserved 
a place in the Hall of Fame or any similar institution that might be 
brave enough to recognize an American institution conceived of 
American genius and dedicated to public service. And if you will 
look through the magazines, you will find other proprietary prepar- | 
ations, which can boast of more authorities, bona fide testimonials 
in proof of their merit than many a highly respected cloak and suit 
house could ever hope to publish. | 

Everybody knows perfectly well that there are some medicines 
that are real institutions, and some that are quacks, just as there are 
a lot of investment propositions which are absolutely bona fide and, 
at the same time, there are a lot of skin games. Here is the point of 
it all: That, although the newspapers are not seeking business on 


130 


any “holier-than-thou” basis, they are business-like enough to be 
eternally after the fakers, and every day sees the field of advertising 
broadened and the cause of commercial ethics honord by the stamp- 
ing out of some lying, would-be-advertiser. And in this cause the 
magazines and the newspapers are fighting as one. 


CHAPTER EXX AVI 


The Dealer’s Attitude Towards Newspaper 
Advertising. 


Some say that newspaper advertising lacks the “prestige’’—that 
you can’t enthuse a dealer with the mere black-and-white of news- 
paper ads which you propose to run for the promotion of the sale of 
your goods—that the only way to get a real, red-blooded dealer-en- 
thusiasm team working your way is to flash before Mr. Dealer a 
great big sheet, showing (1) the pictures of the front covers of every 
good-looking magazine whose solicictor calls upon you; (2) a col- 
lection of nice, artistic representations of your proposed ads, all got 
up in soft, pretty half-tone effects. 

Some say further that this is not theory. They know from act- 
ual experience on the road. ~All right—perhaps they did find, once 
upon a time, that a great big proof sheet of a proposed national cam- 
paign did open the dealer’s eyes and start his order in the little book. 
But, does the dealer of today let his artistic sense run away with his 
head? 

Anyway, that was some few years ago. The point is that times 
have changed. Some may think that the dealer is just as susceptible 
to that “spread” as he used to be, but he is not, and that is based on 
experience and not theory. 

But some may have good reason to believe that an advance 
sheet of magazine ads still influences the dealer to order liberally or 

to stock up for the demand which that proposed campaign prophe- 
’ sies. As far as established manufacturers are concerned, that may 
be quite true, because they have always run along so successfully, 
and the dealer feels that in their case he will not get stuck if he an- 
ticipates a fair demand for their goods. But, the sad part of it is 
that this whole system of dealer stimulation has suffered at the 
hands of that greatest of all success assassins, General Fake. Some 
careless manufacturers came along with some of those art sheets, 
and the dealer was frightened into filling up his shelves lest he be 
swamped, with the resultant demand for Fake’s Flaccid Flakes or 
some other “big seller” which, as far as you could tell from the 
eventual demand, was really advertised in the classified department 
of the magazines, if at all. 

So, Mr. Dealer, after listening to this story of “Wolf,” got to 
thinking: “There ain’t no such animal.” Perhaps your proposition 
may be the wolf, but, though it be a regular “bear” as to actual con- 


131 


sumer demand, it has to suffer the suspicion to which that old cry ot 
“Wolf” has made it subject. 

Anyway, why don’t a mere business-like “black-and-white” 
presentation of your proposed newspaper advertising have as good 
an effect in getting the dealer to put in an adequate stock? Why 
wouldn’t it have a better effect—logically ? Suppose you were spend- 
ing $100,000 per year. You are in one thousand towns where there 
there are good newspapers, and where you have dealers. That would 
make an average of $100 to each of these towns. 

Suppose that this fall your travelers were to start off with a 
set of “mere black-and-white’ copy to be used in these one thousand 
local newspapers. Even your poorest salesmen could go into a store 
in some town of about 25,000, where you have always found it hard 
to get representation. He could go to the very best merchant in 
that town and say, simply: 

“Tf we run these ads in the local papers, how much of our 
goods do you think we could sell?” 

The dealer would probably cast his eye over the series and say 
that he could sell such and such an amount. And he would be glad 
to order that amount. 


CHAPTER LXXXVIII 


How Territorial Limitations Recommend 
Newspapers. 


A furniture concern decided to put about $100,000 into a cam- 
paign for the promotion of their trade-mark. They thought that they 
could cash in on such an advertising plan. They went into the mag- 
azines wihch reached right straight through the whole United States. 

They figured that if they could get a certain number of people 
to read their ads and if, out of that number, a certain proportion 
would demand their particular kind of goods—then they would more 
than break even. But they did not figure in their préliminary plans 
that a good deal of the circulation, for which they would pay their 
good money, went into places where their sales could not reach— 
through Nebraska, Kansas and all over that part of the West and 
along the coast. 

Their manufacturing conditions were such that they could not 
' compete in those sections. The freight rate was so much in favor 
of their competitors who manufactured in those localities and the 
price of the other man’s goods was so much less on that account 
that, regardless of how this manufacturer might build up an idea of 
quality, he could not succeed with his advertising in those parts of 
the country. 

As a result of that fact, half of the space they bought was 
practically wasted and this manufacturer’s advertising plan explod- 
ed. Possibly if they had been able to utilize all the circulation that 
he had paid for, then his plan would have been a success. 3 


132 


The fact of limitation of territory has become so important in the 
advertising field that quite a few publications now permit you to 
run your ad in a certain section of the country and not in another. 
For instance, some of the biggest farm magazines have two distinct 
editions. One of them goes to the West and the other to the East. 
Each has about 250,000 circulation. The editorial matter, the stories 
and write-ups are the same in both. Some of the advertisements 
are the same in both, but most of the advertisements are different 
for the East than for the West. 


The obstacle of territory-limitation by freight rates must have 
been avoided by a different choice of mediums. It is probably true 
that if those furniture people had gone into newspapers rather than 
magazines—and had concentrated their expenditure in the towns 
where they knew they could sell—where they knew they would be 
able to compete on an equal basis with other manufacturers—then 
they would have won out. 


CHAPTER LXXXIX 


Determining the Formula of Sales Success. 


We have found how advertising is simply an analysis of the 
product, of the prospect and of the market. Too much importance 
cannot be placed on any one of these phases. 


As to the product, there have been more failures through lack 
of analysis of that than through any other cause. Especially men 
are apt to run against this rock in the matter of marketing patents. 
The novelty of such products often beclouds the component factors 
and results in an atmosphere which is apt to avert analysis. 


Even if your product is a staple and you are sure there is a de- 
mand for it, stilk you must analyze to find out whether it is worth 
the investment of a penny of advertising—for some things are not 
advertisable. Either they lack a repetitive value, or intrinsically 
they are of a nature which publicity cannot help. 


And then after you have decided, from an analysis of the prod- 
uct, that it is something which you can successfully advertise, then 
comes your decision as to how this will bring you into an analysis 
of the product by which the appeals in that product will be picked 
to pieces so that the worth while points can be sorted from the im- 
material ones. 

Human nature enters into this phase of the analysis of product, 
because here analysis of prospect must enter into consideration in 
order to find the capacities of likes in the composite person to whom 
the product must be sold. Here the analysis of product and prospect 
then enters into the realm of psychology. For that reason, there is 
no set science to determine what is what. Luckily, at this point ex- 
periment is usable. The many possible appeals which may be adopt- 
ed can be tried out. 


133 


That is what you may call your formula of sales success. This 
means that if certain appeals of the product are carried to the pros- 
pect in a certain way, the results will be successful. Once you find 
this formula of sales success, you can apply it almost without end. 

The analysis of product and prospect brings you into an analy- 
sis of market. You have to find out where your prospects are lo- 
cated, as well as what kind of people they are. Here you must deo 
cide on the question of what medium to use. If your prospect is of 
a certain class, it may be best for you to use the publication which 
specializes its circulation among that class. But if your product is 
of fairly universal appeal, you will have to choose a newspaper. 
whether your possible market be territorially limited or whether it 
be nation wide. | 

And, inasmuch as step-by-step experiment must in the long run 
determine your formula of sales success, therefore, for this unit plan 
of tests, the newspaper is your greatest opportunity. These same 
principles of analysis hold true with little variation, whether you be 
a retail advertiser or one who seeks a general market. 


CHAD TERA 


Successful Advertising Demands Truth. 


In the Klondike days when cities sprang up like mushrooms, 
Alaska’s settlements were dirty unkempt places. ‘Today they have 
their street departments and their pavements and their cleaning ap- 
paratus, just like any other American city. 

When advertising first started to have its fling it had the new- 
ness of a gold camp. It was abnormal. Advertisers were excited. 
Then it was a thing of atmosphere—of splurge—of hifalutin guess- 
work. There was no time to think of ethics or of basic principles. 

So advertising began to pave its streets. Cleaning departments, 
in the form of vigilance committees were created by ad clubs all over 
the country. Wagonload upon wagonload of exaggeration and fraud 
were carried away from the Avenues of Publicity and dumped into 
the Obsolete river. 

The clean-up in advertising has largely been due to ethics. The 
men whom advertising has enlisted have been men of keen intellect 
and high ideals. When they got their balance, their pride lead them 
to desire that their profession be clean and honest. 

But there was another element which is not so romantic as 
the desire for decency. This other element has been simply one of 
business acumen. For, as advertising has progressed, men have an- 
alyzed and have found certain truths. The biggest of these truths 
is that truth in advertising is an ingredient in success in advertising. 

As advertising has settled down to a business it has been 
forced to follow rules of business efficiency. A cardinal principle to 
which advertising has become subject, is that unless advertising can 
create business of a more than temporary nature, advertising cannot 


134 


To the Business Men of Buffalo and Western 
New York. 


To you, the Buffalo Ad Club presents this book in the hope that it 
may help spread the Gospel of Publicity. Simply for the sake of general 
business progress, we urge consideration of this dynamic force. 


We feel that all of us hereabouts would do well to sense more keenly 
the influences that have made many American cities spurt ahead. And 
hese influences have been nothing more than modern-business-principles 


with advertising as the keystone. 


This book sketches the methods and possibilities of advertising 
Although practical, and designed to state the simple fact of experience 
it unavoidably presents a few opinions. These must be taken as those 
of the author, Alex F. Osborn, Vice-President of the Buffalo Ad Club 
and not of the Ad Club. Especially in the matter of medium, we hold 
no brief whatsoever. Each has its own special merit, and in a given 


case any certain one may be better, or even best. 


BUFFALO AD CLUB, 


GeorGE W. BILLINGs, 
August 29, 1915. President. 


BRASS TACKS 
of ADVERTISING 


AN UNMYSTERIOUS ANALYSIS OF THE 
PRACTICAL PHASES OF THE KIND 
OF ADVERTISING WHICH ANALYZES 


BY 


ALEX F. OSBORN, Pu. M. 


Service Manager, E. P. Remington Agency, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Instructor of Advertising in Y. M. C. A., and High School 


Published under the Auspices of the 
BUFFALO AD CLUB 


Copyricut 1915 Printed by 
BY HAUSAUER-JONES PRINTING COMPANY 
ALEX. F. OSBORN Burrato, N. Y. 


i 


in the long run succeed. That standard demands truth because the 
public demands truth. The reason that that standard does demand 
truth is best summed up in the words of Abraham Lincoln: “You 
can fool part of the people all of the time and all of the people part 
of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” 

You cant advertise unless you analyze. You cannot analyze 
advertising without coming up face to face against the uncontrovert- 
ible verdict of experience that the advertiser who lies is spending his 
money in digging for himself a commercial grave, into which, sooner 
or later, his business must go. 


135 


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